ABSTRACT
An analysis of the contemporary Brazilian natural resource politics is used in this chapter to demonstrate further how the theoretical framework outlined in Chapter 1 can be applied. Most focus is placed on the national level, but also state- and municipal level interactions between companies and resistance will be discussed. In ideal research, data should be gathered to analyze the political games in all levels of governance (global, national, sub-national, local and private); the analysis here suggests how to do this, illustrating what interactive mechanisms and strategies should be studied in a thick description of resource politics. Considering the assessment of the hypothesis, this chapter is important in demonstrating that the slowing outcomes in resource exploitation influenced by resistance can come in spite of, or in the middle of, rising and different types of corporate agency. As resource politics is a zero-sum game between resistance and corporations, the existence of slowing outcomes lead to the logical conclusion that contentious agency has risen relatively (but not absolutely) even more than corporate agency in some cases. The analysis of political games is central in explaining this.
