Acknowledgements
In my work at the University of Queensland, I have had the privilege of speaking with Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) practitioners from all over the world. They are committed professionals who are earnestly trying to do the right thing for the communities affected by mining, oil and gas, timber, pipelines, hydro-electric dams, windfarms and other large-footprint operations. None of them wakes up in the morning saying, “How can I mess up the lives of people and environments affected by natural resources projects today?”
What I have heard repeatedly is that there is simply too much information to track, too many forms to fill out, insufficient human or financial resources to do the job they know needs to be done and stacks of ‘best practice’ guidelines—each one saying something slightly different. This surfeit of material leads many to rely, occasionally, on their professional intuition. Professional intuition is the summation of experience, the path of least resistance with either corporate and/or the community, and whatever corporate or international guidance standard is handy at the time. It is clear to this outside observer that CSR professionals are not negligent. On the contrary, they are seeking or developing reliable and innovative shortcuts to making effective and efficient decisions, some with long-lasting consequences. This book is an effort to systematise these shortcuts and make their wisdom more accessible to a wider group of CSR practitioners and communities.
As I hope is evident throughout this book, I fully support the use of best practice guidelines and well-written corporate policy. However, I observe that practitioners who work—consciously or unconsciously—out of a paradigm of peace are successful at working with communities while keeping the social costs of doing business low.
Choosing to work and live within traditions supporting a paradigm of peace takes courage and a great deal of humour. Often, the decisions made within this paradigm seem counter-intuitive or at least puzzling to those unfamiliar with this way of thinking. What does peace have to do with business in the first place or the natural resources industries in particular? I hope that this book will render answers to this question clearly.
Observant readers will also notice that I write out of my commitments to the wisdom and belief in a deep tradition of peace within the oldest interpretations of the Beatitudes within the Gospel of Jesus Christ (Matt 5: 3–12). This wisdom corresponds to similar traditions of peace in Indigenous, Muslim, Buddhist, Sikh, Confucian and other religious or philosophical foundations for peaceful expressions of human society. In appealing to these traditions, it is my hope that CSR practitioners can make their own link to their own traditional sources of wisdom to guide them as they innovate within a Paradigm of Peace towards making efficient, effective decisions beneficial to corporations, communities and the environment.
Finally, I would like to thank the editorial team at Routledge for their care and patience with this manuscript. I am indeed grateful for the many colleagues, students and industry partners who have informed my understanding of the particular challenges faced by natural resources operations and the communities affected by them. I am especially grateful to the CSR practitioners who agreed to interviews vital to the development of the paradigm of peace especially for businesses. My colleagues and the executive leadership team at the UQ Business School have provided a supportive environment in which to complete this manuscript. Of special mention is Joshua Hartmann, who very patiently translated the figures in this manuscript from earlier iterations. I also owe a debt of gratitude to my family for their support and love, most especially to Gilbert, whose own commitment to a life of peace and reconciliation through faith in Jesus Christ is truly inspirational.