Ecologically unequal exchange, transnational mining, and resistance: A political ecology contribution to green criminology

This article draws on discourses in political ecology and green criminology to critique the ways in which transnational mining is legitimated and advanced with significant impacts on natural environments and local communities in the Global South. It examines an ongoing case of environmental conflict related to Australian mining in South Africa and explores processes of ecologically unequal exchange. It identifies how the corporate tentacles of transnational mining corporations circumvent and subvert regulatory oversight to exploit people, land and natural resources—with devastating environmental and social impacts. Finally, it discusses the perils and prospects faced by affected communities, as well as localized movements of resistance and environmental activism when confronting state and corporate power