ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses companies practices in adjacent communities, using the case of mining companies in copper and cobalt-rich Southern Katanga in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). It looks at large and medium-sized multinational companies that have committed themselves to standards of corporate social responsibility. These are for the chapter the American company Free-port MacMoRan, Canadian First Quantum and Australian Anvil Mining. Examining the everyday practices of these companies allows us to show ambiguous uses and effects of the idea of civil society and participatory community engagement. It analyses continuities and changes in corporate community practices in the early twentieth century and the post-2003 period in Katanga, DRC. The chapter examines how Western donor agencies join in with companies in building a service-oriented 'civil society' while excluding more critical voices. It also criticises the lack of sustainability of corporate participatory community programmes such as in times of economic crisis.
