Demanding Rights in Company-Community Resource Extraction Conflicts : Examining the Cases of Posco and Vedanta in Odisha, India

Amidst intensified competition for land available to private investors in mining, industrial and commercial agriculture sectors, contests between transnational companies and communities over land are emerging in many countries as a significant domain of social conflict. The power imbalances between actors involved in such conflicts are often stark, as indigenous groups or poor farmers find themselves engaged in social and political struggles against powerful networks of political and business elites. Despite these disparities, organized resistance to land appropriations by marginalized groups — framed in the language of justice or rights — can sometimes result in legal or administrative decisions to stop or alter contested projects