ABSTRACT
Even though interest in monitoring the social impacts of capitalist development continues to grow, few observers demonstrate how both the monitoring and the impact occurs at the local level and how these are replications of global trends. This chapter will examine how the socioeconomic monitoring mechanisms of mining companies are seeking to fulfill three key functions: (1) to comply with local and national mining legislation, (2) to demonstrate to the company’s peers that its projects are globally competitive (Sklair, 2002), and (3) to legitimate the existence of the mining project to society at large. Furthermore, using Harvey’s geography of difference approach (2004) and a Gramscian conception of legitimacy, this chapter explores the various ways in which a geographically remote mining community in Papua New Guinea (PNG) replicates some of the global trends in socioeconomic monitoring.1
