The thesis analyses the socioeconomic impact of the bauxite/alumina multinational corporations on Jamaica's rural communities, paying specific attention to relocation and community health. It therefore provides a case study of the way in which extractive MNCs can impact on the environment and health in Global South countries. A significant percentage ofJamaica's rural residents rely on small-scale agriculture to make a living. It argues, in keeping with the tenets of the Human Capability Approach (HCA), that the effects of company activities represent a diminution of their capabilities and those of residents in mining communities more generally, and arguably represents an infringement on their human rights. This stifles freedom thereby having an unfavourable effect on the development process. The capability-diminishing effects associated with relocation arise from the companies' failure to adequately rehabilitate mined land after the extraction of the ore, and the fact that consequently, agricultural productivity is diminished. The thesis also explores issues such as the fact of having to become acclimatised to a new community and often a new way of life, the dissatisfaction with compensation for land, the dissatisfaction with the standard of replacement housing, and the overall treatment by the companies and the state officials in charge of residents' welfare. The thesis also examines the effects of fugitive bauxite dust and chemicals related to the processing of the ore, on community health. Complaints run the gamut from respiratory ailments' to degenerative diseases. Although it does not attempt to establish causation, it establishes some degree of correlation between company activities and deteriorating community health. Finally the efforts of the Jamaican state to militate against the aforementioned issues are examined. It is argued, in keeping with the RCA, that the state has a duty to protect rural mining residents from the adverse effects of the industry's activities but that it is failing in this regard. The reasons for this failure are also explored.