Towards a Green Perspective on The Politics of Palm Oil Harm in Colombia

The central aim of this PhD project is to contribute to a more comprehensive analysis and theorization of ‘harm’ within criminology through a focus on the social and environmental harms associated with the production of palm oil in Colombia. Globally, the palm oil industry has been linked to the type of social, cultural, and environmental harms that do not readily fit traditional (legalistic) notions of crime. From a green criminological perspective centred on the notion of harm, this study aims to go beyond merely descriptive accounts of harm by interrogating the operation of power in the ‘politics of palm oil harm’. Analysed against the background of practice, the research focus is on how the alleged impacts of the palm oil industry are articulated, understood, denied, constructed, reconfigured and/or used strategically in the spoken and written accounts of (a) industry representatives and state officials; (b) local, small-scale agriculturalists dedicated to oil palm cultivation; (c) local populations critical of the imposition of palm oil production, and; (d) civil society organizations.