Corporate funding and local community development: a case from the mining industry in Australia

The social and political complexities of corporate community development as practiced in the mining industry form the focus of this chapter. Special attention is given to implications for meanings of ‘community’ and ‘development’. This is achieved through examination of corporate community development in the rural Shire of Ravensthorpe in Western Australia, the green-field site of the Ravensthorpe Nickel Operation (RNO). Drawing on substantive empirical data collected during a two-year ethnography in the Shire, this chapter illuminates the ways in which corporate funding can shape local senses of community and its governance, while failing to advance local development agendas