ABSTRACT
New forms of governance associated with moving finance and production capital across community, national and ecosystem boundaries are constructing and reconstructing rural (and urban) landscapes (Goodman and Redclift 1991; Marsden et al. 1993). Landscapes are contested terrains (Cronon 1996: 51) where the actions and interactions of people and organizations belonging to mobile social and economic networks affect how we think about landscapes and relate to them. When we study rural landscapes as contested terrains, we can neither logically nor empirically separate natural and social processes and are reminded of Bennett’s (1976) insight that how people and their organizations treat nature depends very much on how they treat each other. Economic and environmental activities are not only embedded in network relationships, but, more importantly, in social interaction, institutional histories and norms governing network relationships (Granovetter 1985). This is most evident in the relations between globalized corporations and local communities in the mining and agricultural sectors when conflicts arise over the social and environmental impacts of corporate economic plans. These relationships are critically linked as we become more concerned about balancing economic objectives with social and environmental justice, which is fundamental to how local people, scholars and researchers are now approaching environmental sustainability. It is a primary challenge for both industries and communities since achieving sustainability is coming to rely upon companies and communities forming strategic partnerships where there is power sharing and trust (Fung and Wright 2003).
