Traction: The Role of Executives in Localising Global Mining and Petroleum Industries in Papua New Guinea

Abstract

This article presents interview data from corporate elites in Papua New Guinea's mining and petroleum sector and other members of the business community. It describes their world view, and in particular their belief that resource extraction and business will help bring development to their country in a way that its social-democratic government has not. The article uses this data to make three contributions to the existing literature. First, it argues that globe-spanning industrial capitalism is subject to description through ethnographic fieldwork. Secondly, it demonstrates that elites in Papua New Guinea gain 'traction' and thus make corporate projects possible because of - not despite - their particularistic ties and personal biographies. Finally, it argues that it is possible to study corporate elites in a disinterested way without being co-opted by their political agenda.