Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book suggests a paradigm of positive peace as a platform for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) practice of natural resources companies (NRCs), particularly in non-war-affected contexts. Depending on the context, natural resources activities can either generate or reawaken both sustained and episodic social conflict with communities. The book highlights that Neoliberal Economics, Risk Management and Human Rights paradigms focus much more on the avoidance of negative consequences rather than on the achievement of productive outcomes resulting from NRC-community interaction. It considers the gains a paradigm of positive peace might achieve, given the relentless financial and political pressures continuously at play in the natural resources sector. The book explores the concept of paradigms as an organising construct and then looks carefully at three influential paradigms in the CSR space.