Indigenous rights and governance theory: an introduction

Worldwide, there are tensions over resources and territories between Indigenous peoples and extractive industries. That these tensions have increased and become more intense is no surprise, given historical records and current land encroachments. Still, efforts at cooperation by Indigenous peoples and industry are by no means unheard of. Indigenous peoples have successfully secured rights through international law, improving participation and enhancing self-determination as a people equal to other peoples. The business sector has also increasingly reformed its approach to human rights. This book is based on projects studying how Indigenous peoples interact with different industries—mining, aquaculture and renewable energy—and how the interaction is framed by international law, national legislation and policies, and business approaches. Our theoretical framework for understanding new forms of governance that involve actors from government (state), market and civil society is interactive governance theory formulated by Jan Kooiman and others. This chapter presents the background on Indigenous rights, discusses the framework of interactive governance and outlines the chapters of the book.