2014-Sustainable Industrial Processing Summit
SIPS 2014 Volume 1: Mining
| Editors: | Kongoli F |
| Publisher: | Flogen Star OUTREACH |
| Publication Year: | 2014 |
| Pages: | 424 pages |
| ISBN: | 978-1-987820-03-4 |
| ISSN: | 2291-1227 (Metals and Materials Processing in a Clean Environment Series) |
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Worldview and Resource Development
Murray Lytle1; Michael Hitch2;1SNOWDEN MINING INDUSTRY CONSULTANTS, Calgary, Canada; 2UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA, Vancouver, Canada;
Type of Paper: Regular
Id Paper: 91
Topic: 1
Abstract:
This paper reports a research correlating worldview with the support of modern resource development. A factor analysis was used to develop multivariate correlations for the answers to an exhaustive worldview questionnaire. An invitation to participate in the questionnaire was made to people from a wide variety of geographical, vocational and social backgrounds and the results suggest that, for this group at least, queries into worldview are predictive of support for resource development.
It is postulated that the worldviews that are represented in disputes with Western resource development arose from the philosophical splits that occurred in the mid to late 18th Century. The empirical worldview of the Utilitarians is still being opposed by the value-based worldview of the Romantics. With the participation of a proliferation of non-government organizations in vetting resource development projects as encouraged by the Brundtland Commission, the concept of "sustainability" has been consolidated in the minds of all parties to such development.
However, a study of resource development conflicts points out that environmental and social issues, being always the stated points of opposition, are often proxies for the underlying concerns which are rooted in the opposing worldviews held by the resource developer, the affected community members and the external interveners. Therefore, attempts to address the stated environmental or social issue result in frustration and sometimes failure because the underlying worldview causes of the conflict are not articulated or addressed.
The theoretical and research underpinnings of the hypothesis are used to revisit a previous resource development failure in order to demonstrate that sources of conflict are generally much deeper than the oft articulated issues of environmental and social problems.