Grievances, agency and the absence of conflict: The new Suzano pulp investment in the Eastern Amazon

The case is highly relevant for conflict theory. Generally, industrial tree plantation expansion has boosted grievances, but the resistance and conflicts have varied depending on the social actors' agency. In comparison to the high-intensity conflicts between the rural social movements such as the Brazilian Landless Movement (MST) and the pulp companies in most other new investments, there has been a rare absence of conflict in this case, as no movement has seized on local grievances. Conflicts cannot be studied in-depth by focusing only on conflict cases. Absence-cases open up an opportunity to revisit the question why conflicts arise. An analysis of this case allows an empirically rooted theoretical discussion on conflict causalities, which can answer several vexing questions in the study of conflicts. A new and generally applicable typology of different types of grievances is offered, and the grievances' causal relation to conflicts is examined. The importance of political dynamics and inter-personal relations in investment conflicts is emphasized. The way culture influences conflict dynamics is pondered upon by ethnography of the Brazilian conflict culture, where personal relations are more relevant in explaining conflict escalation than in the political systems with a stronger (impersonal) rule of law. The role of third parties such as other industries in the investment area is discussed. A qualitative comparative analysis of the major pulp project conflicts and their causes in Latin America is offered. Mobilization and thus conflict causality is explainable only when taking into account the types of grievances and the local, inter-personal, and organizational (state-business-movement) relations by which these are remediated and negotiated.