Possibilities Through ‘Strategic Essentialism’: Adani Tnc and Protest and Negotiation Discourses In Australia

Abstract

A common space of transnational studies is the multinational corporation. This chapter looks at how an Indian mining company seeks to extend its operations into Australia, disturbing both state and federal political spaces, but also crossing into contested spaces of economy, Indigenous identity and environmental activism. It shows how the seemingly fundamental location of Indigeneity can fracture into competing interests and how protecting an essential local Indigenous identity can involve strategic movements into pan-national and transnational spaces. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2022.