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6 Social Investment Discourses in Participants’ Interviews
in participants’ discussion of social investment designed to meet the host government’s social-economic agenda. In drawing on working with discourses, participants constructed social investment practices that were community-centred and
participatory.
In this chapter, I argue that O&G social investment is most effective in assisting
host communities if framed in relation to working with discourses. Nevertheless, in
social investment experts’ narratives, working with communities was not a simple or
linear process. Rather, it required hard work and long-lasting partnerships based on
the establishment of trusting relationships between the company, local communities,
local civil society groups, NGOs and host governments.
When discussing social investment, some O&G participants drew on one
discourse, while others drew on multiple discourses, sometimes in apparently contradictory ways. However, in this chapter, for analytic purposes, I focus on each
discourse separately. What follows is an overview of how the four discourses emerged
in my research interviews. While describing each of the discourses and how they
appeared, I also discuss the contradictions that emerged in the participants’ narratives.
I begin with working on discourses.
6.1 Working on Discourses
Working on discourses appeared in all of the interviews. Participants drew on working
on discourses of social investment when they talked about social projects where
power relations were one-way and top-down (Fig. 6.1).
Fig. 6.1 Working on discourses of social investment
6 Social Investment Discourses in Participants’ Interviews
in participants’ discussion of social investment designed to meet the host government’s social-economic agenda. In drawing on working with discourses, participants constructed social investment practices that were community-centred and
participatory.
In this chapter, I argue that O&G social investment is most effective in assisting
host communities if framed in relation to working with discourses. Nevertheless, in
social investment experts’ narratives, working with communities was not a simple or
linear process. Rather, it required hard work and long-lasting partnerships based on
the establishment of trusting relationships between the company, local communities,
local civil society groups, NGOs and host governments.
When discussing social investment, some O&G participants drew on one
discourse, while others drew on multiple discourses, sometimes in apparently contradictory ways. However, in this chapter, for analytic purposes, I focus on each
discourse separately. What follows is an overview of how the four discourses emerged
in my research interviews. While describing each of the discourses and how they
appeared, I also discuss the contradictions that emerged in the participants’ narratives.
I begin with working on discourses.
6.1 Working on Discourses
Working on discourses appeared in all of the interviews. Participants drew on working
on discourses of social investment when they talked about social projects where
power relations were one-way and top-down (Fig. 6.1).
Fig. 6.1 Working on discourses of social investment