Global corporations and local dependencies: Resource redistribution and the reconfiguration of dependency relations in Sierra Leone

Abstract

Dynamics of resource redistribution, local entanglement, and processes of dis/empowerment are crucial elements in the development effects of corporate resource extraction. This article critically speaks to these debates by examining the entanglements of a global mining company in Sierra Leone and its effects on local patronage and dependency networks. Crucially, rather than foregrounding processes of detachment and the reproduction of inequality, the analysis brings home forms of corporate attachment and quests for local empowerment. Three domains of resource redistribution are placed centre stage: 1) the co-production of contemporary corporate patronage by corporations and communities; 2) the politics and practices of competing elites in channelling resource flows between corporations and communities; and 3) employees’ engagement in the informal redistribution of resources. The practices of demanding, accessing, controlling, and distributing resources in these three domains not only create forms of corporate attachment, but also enable different actors to (attempt to) strengthen their positions within their multilayered dependency networks, and to pursue empowerment. Such processes and practices are key to understanding how development and change are imagined, pursued, and negotiated in the context of corporate resource extraction in Sierra Leone and elsewhere.