Translation Alignment: Actor‐Network Theory, Resistance, and the Power Dynamics of Alliance in New Caledonia

Abstract

This study of resistance to multinational mining in New Caledonia expands actor-network theory's concept of translation by exploring ways that power dynamics affect alliances and the translations that both support and challenge them. Examining relationships among an indigenous protest group, environmentalist grassroots organizations, a human rights lawyer, the mining company, and the provincial government, I argue that power often requires alliances, mediated by compatible translations. However, if alliances are to succeed, at least temporarily, these translations must be made compatible through a process of translation alignment. Ironically, this alignment inevitably alters at least one of the translations, diminishing the power of the actor-network that articulated it to achieve its original goals. This paper's findings also enhance radical geographical understandings of capitalism's infrastructure, as uneven development increasingly relies upon-yet finds it increasingly difficult to achieve-the alignment of local communities' translations with those of the agents of industry.

Large-scale Mines and Local-level Politics: Between New Caledonia and Papua New Guinea

“…It should also be noted that SLN made tactical use of 'trade union sources' when it suggested that the Thio blockade put the jobs of the workers at the Doniambo nickel processing plant temporarily at risk (Hervieu 1996). 14 The same absence would be observed in the conflict between the local population and multinational mining company in the neighbouring commune of Yaté a few years later (see Horowitz 2012). North Province took a backseat position during the negotiation of the agreement between SLN and the river clans in the mining area of Tiébaghi, but later intervened in the establishment of the public-private partnership created to manage the local subcontracting arrangement.…”

“…The key point is that 'landowners' may subscribe to an ideology of development in the same way that 'developers' subscribe to an ideology of landownership, not because they agree about the best way to calculate the distribution of costs and benefits, but simply because they want something from the other side. Furthermore, the notion of 'development'-especially of 'sustainable development'-may be deployed as a semantic vehicle to align divergent corporate and community interests in the form of a specific local agreement, as in the case of the Goro project (Horowitz 2012). …”

“…Based on the results of a qualitative study carried out as part of a doctoral thesis from 2011 among the inhabitants of the municipality in question, institutional representatives, employees of the Goro Nickel Project, and other political actors, I aim to revisit the phases of a conflict with the mining company that has already been examined from both environmental (Horowitz , 2010(Horowitz , 2012 and political (Demmer 2007(Demmer , 2012 The different actors who emerged during this period expressed different representations of links between people and land. The questions posed here concern the extent to which these representations enable us to gain a better understanding of the 2008 agreement, and what they tell us about the different actors' visions of development.…”

“…22 The land reform process, which was launched in 1978 and continued in various institutional forms up to the 2000s, was based on the acquisition of areas of private land by a public agency and their redistribution in the legal form of customary land to Kanak collectives (tribes, clans or groups of clans) based on criteria that combined the logics of proof (historical group legitimacies) and negotiation (current land requirements) (Le Meur 2011). 23 This may be contrasted with the negotiation of the agreement negotiated for the Grand Sud (Goro) project, which was signed by the customary authorities, the indigenous association called Rhêêbù Nùù, and the Brazilian mining company Vale in 2008 (Horowitz 2012).…”

Re-examining culture/conservation conflict: the view of anthropology of conservation through the lens of environmental ethics

“…The environmentalists needed the group's ''indigenous legitimacy.'' But in the end -behind the environmentalists' backs -the indigenous group signed a ''pact'' with the mining company (Horowitz Forthcoming 2011).…”