Ainsley Elbra – författare

This book takes a fresh approach to the puzzle of sub-Saharan Africa’s resource curse. Moving beyond current scholarship’s state-centric approach, it presents cutting-edge evidence gathered through interviews with mining company executives and industry representatives to demonstrate that firms are actively controlling the regulation of the gold mining sector. It shows how large mining firms with significant private authority in South Africa, Ghana and Tanzania are able to engender rules and regulations that are acknowledged by other actors, and in some cases even adopted by the state. In doing so, it establishes that firms are co-governing Africa’s gold mining sector. By exploring the implications for resource-cursed states, this significant work argues that firm-led regulation can improve governance, but that many of these initiatives fail to address country/mine specific issues where there remains a role for the state in ensuring the benefits of mining flow to local communities. It will appeal to economists, political scientists, and policy-makers and practitioners working in the field of mining and extractives.

This book takes a fresh approach to the puzzle of sub-Saharan Africa’s resource curse. Moving beyond current scholarship’s state-centric approach, it presents cutting-edge evidence gathered through interviews with mining company executives and industry representatives to demonstrate that firms are actively controlling the regulation of the gold mining sector. It shows how large mining firms with significant private authority in South Africa, Ghana and Tanzania are able to engender rules and regulations that are acknowledged by other actors, and in some cases even adopted by the state. In doing so, it establishes that firms are co-governing Africa’s gold mining sector. By exploring the implications for resource-cursed states, this significant work argues that firm-led regulation can improve governance, but that many of these initiatives fail to address country/mine specific issues where there remains a role for the state in ensuring the benefits of mining flow to local communities. It will appeal to economists, political scientists, and policy-makers and practitioners working in the field of mining and extractives.

The boards and management of listed companies are under increasing pressure from investors to address urgent environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues. These include concerns over their companies' contributions to climate change, protection of First Nations people's cultural heritage, elimination of modern slavery, and workers' rights more broadly. In the case of Australia, the country's economic reliance on mineral extraction places questions of environmental harm and reckoning with the rights of the country's Indigenous population at the forefront of corporate governance. Yet, unlike in comparable liberal market economies, ESG shareholder activism is a relatively new phenomenon in Australia. It is this puzzle—the drivers of the sudden emergence of ESG shareholder activism in a financial-legal system designed to stymy investor voice—that motivates this book. Ainsley Elbra identifies significant governance gaps between societal expectations and corporate behavior. Integrating social movement theory and corporate governance frameworks, Elbra demonstrates the potential of market-based activism to drive change within corporations and industries. She warns, however, that successful social movements can be undermined by government intervention. Battling the Board makes an important contribution to the understanding of how shareholder activists leverage corporate governance mechanisms to shape political economic outcomes that have direct consequences for sustainability and climate change.

The boards and management of listed companies are under increasing pressure from investors to address urgent environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues. These include concerns over their companies' contributions to climate change, protection of First Nations people's cultural heritage, elimination of modern slavery, and workers' rights more broadly. In the case of Australia, the country's economic reliance on mineral extraction places questions of environmental harm and reckoning with the rights of the country's Indigenous population at the forefront of corporate governance. Yet, unlike in comparable liberal market economies, ESG shareholder activism is a relatively new phenomenon in Australia. It is this puzzle-the drivers of the sudden emergence of ESG shareholder activism in a financial-legal system designed to stymy investor voice-that motivates this book. Ainsley Elbra identifies significant governance gaps between societal expectations and corporate behavior. Integrating social movement theory and corporate governance frameworks, Elbra demonstrates the potential of market-based activism to drive change within corporations and industries. She warns, however, that successful social movements can be undermined by government intervention. Battling the Board makes an important contribution to the understanding of how shareholder activists leverage corporate governance mechanisms to shape political economic outcomes that have direct consequences for sustainability and climate change.

This book's eminent editors and contributing authors provide an accessible and engaging account of the 'new' politics of corporate taxation, highlighting the complex and multidimensional strategies used by activists to influence public opinion, formal regulation and corporate behaviour. While campaigning is successful at exposing tax avoidance, it presents significant governance challenges. As this book reveals, the battle to establish fair and sustainable corporate tax regimes has only just begun.Chapters offer readers a timely assessment of the emerging role of new tax justice NGOs, the media and whistleblowers, as well as new governance strategies and policies targeting multinational corporations. Through the lens of political science, the authors show how civil society organisations shape the agenda of tax practices of the world's largest and most powerful corporations, including examples such as Apple and Google. A detailed evaluation is given of new private governance initiatives in the international tax arena and their relationship with traditional forms of regulation.Looking closely at the wider significance of the debate in contemporary global governance, academics and graduates in the fields of international political economy, global governance, development studies and taxation will find this book a timely and thought-provoking read.Contributors: A. Christians, R. Eccleston, A. Elbra, F. Gale, L. Johnson, A. Kellow, L. Latulippe, J. Mikler, H. Murphy-Gregory, T. Porter, K. Ronit, L. Seabrooke, L. Smith, J. Van Alstine, D. Wigan, R. Woodward