skip to content
 

Oliver Balch

​Research

My research focuses on corporate-community relations and the use of corporate responsibility as a discursive tool to legitimise foreign direct investments. In response to widespread social conflicts related to investment projects across Latin America, corporations are adopting corporate responsibility policies and practices in an attempt to deliver socio-economic development in host communities. My research interrogates whether these policies are resulting in developmental results. In addition, it asks how such management approaches impact social relations at both a local and national level. My PhD adopts a case study approach, focusing on Montes del Plata’s (MDP) US$1.9 billion pulp mill project in Uruguay, the country’s largest ever FDI project. My studies touch primarily on the fields of stakeholder theory, development anthropology and critical management studies.​