Logo for Climate Social Science Network (CSSN)

CSSN Working Group

Natural Resources, Energy and Climate Obstruction in the Global South

Co-Chair: Carlos R. S. Milani, Rio de Janeiro State University

Co-Chair: Ruth E. McKie De Montfort University, U.K.

This working group brings together scholars from different disciplines, methodologies, and geographical locations to focus on patterns of obstruction, exploitation, and repression in climate struggles in the Global South. Global South countries across the globe have markedly different endowments and dependencies on different natural resources.

Coal, hydropower, natural gas, and oil-dependent nations, as well as megadiverse and forest-rich countries differ in their histories, development trajectories, and political structures. Indigenous peoples, activists, and civil society organizations in the Global South face exceptionally difficult challenges when confronting states, international agencies, and powerful national and transnational interest groups with massive firms headquartered in the Global North.

However, we know little about obstruction in the Global South and this working group attempts to fill this void, bringing together researchers with different knowledge bases to build a background and program of activities/plans to build our knowledge.