The role of business actors in resource extraction in developing countries is an understudied topic of research for development studies. The framework of valuation languages and socio-environmental conflicts is useful for studying the values of actors involved in conflicts concerning resource extraction, but previous studies do not sufficiently discuss how to measure the concept. This thesis investigates which values are expressed by Vattenfall, a Swedish state-owned company, in relation to the extraction of coal that it purchases from Colombia. To do this, the thesis draws on qualitative analysis of ideas to construct an analytical tool aimed at making valuation languages more measurable and applies it to the case of Vattenfall. The thesis finds that Vattenfall expresses a wide range of monetary and non-monetary values, but this is not sufficient to say that it uses any particular valuation language. Moreover, the company views environmental conflicts as solvable within the single standard of monetary valuation and ignores power asymmetries. The analytical tool is found to be insufficient for identifying valuation languages on its own, but successful in making them more measurable.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:uu-466946 |
| Date | January 2022 |
| Creators | Melzi, Martin |
| Publisher | Uppsala universitet, Statsvetenskapliga institutionen |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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