Contesting claims for democracy: The role of narratives in conflicts over resource extraction

This article focuses on the use of narratives to understand how claims for democratic participation in conflicts over resource extraction are being countered by national state and corporate actors. Theoretically, the analysis is based on Gramsci’s notion of consent and a dialectical understanding of narratives and agency, whereby narratives are understood as contingent products of social interaction. It is argued that in order to become powerful, and to impede the institutionalization of democratic participation and prevent a shift in the power balances in the resource sector, a mixture of different narratives is applied. Core narratives are adjusted to protesters’ claims, are complemented by new storylines to react to changing contexts, and are mixed in order to organize consent in different settings and among different audiences. Empirically, the study focuses on ongoing disputes over popular consultations on mining, fracking and oil exploitation in Colombia. The data for the analysis consists of semi-structured interviews, transcripts of two public and live-streamed hearings, and articles from two leading Colombian newspapers. The period investigated covers the years 2013 (June) to 2018 (November).