Book review - Fabiana Li´s Unearthing Conflict: Corporate Mining, Activism, and Expertise in Peru (original) (raw)

This article examines a conflict over the expansion, into Cerro Quilish (Mount Quilish), of the Yanacocha gold mine, in Northern Peru. In campaigns against the mine, Cerro Quilish was an aquifer (a store of life-sustaining water) and an Apu (usually translated from Quechua as ‘‘sacred mountain’’). Neither the product of ancestral tradition nor the invention of antimining activists, Cerro Quilish came into being through knowledge encounters that brought together actors with diverse interests, although at times a single entity—water—became the central focus of debate, obscuring other realities. Drawing on science and technology studies literature, I examine the practices that bring entities into being and argue that contemporary conflicts involve an ongoing process of contestation over socionatural worlds.

Exploring indigenous life projects in encounters with extractivism, the present open access volume discusses how current turbulences actualise questions of indigeneity, difference and ontological dynamics in the Andes and Amazonia. While studies of extractivism in South America often focus on wider national and international politics, this contribution instead provides ethnographic explorations of indigenous politics, perspectives and worlds, revealing loss and suffering as well as creative strategies to mediate the extralocal. Seeking to avoid conceptual imperialism or the imposition of exogenous categories, the chapters are grounded in the respective authors’ long-standing field research. The authors examine the reactions (from resistance to accommodation), consequences (from anticipation to rubble) and materials (from fossil fuel to water) diversely related to extractivism in rural and urban settings. How can Amerindian strategies to preserve localised communities in extractivist contexts contribute to ways of thinking otherwise?

This paper focuses on population mobility dynamics in and around mining areas in the Peruvian Andes. We use a case study of Rio Tinto's La Granja exploration project in Cajamarca Region to highlight the complexity and fluidity of the population movements around that project and the significant level of agency exercised by local people, as well as how people have been impacted by corporate decisions. We argue that, far from being a relatively static system of social and production relationships, the Andes has long been a place of movement, where individuals and families have used a broad range of mobility strategies to improve their economic well‐being and mitigate the impact of external shocks. In the case of La Granja, the use of such strategies has helped local people to cope with variations in the level of project activity, maintain a connection with the area (even while living outside of it), and to access project‐related benefits such as jobs and compensation payments. At some points in the history of the project, corporate decisions and actions have had a clearly deleterious impact on the local community. However, in more recent times the project also revitalised La Granja as a place, at least for a time, and created new opportunities for individuals and families. In the final section of the paper, we address some broader questions about the role that spatial mobility and family networks can play in diffusing the impacts and benefits of mining projects.

In the early part of this decade, at the beginning of the recent international commodity price boom, Peru adopted major components of the new ‘localist’ policy paradigm for the management of natural resource revenues. In particular, a large fraction of these revenues were transferred to the local governments in the mining areas. The results have been disappointing. Statistical and fieldwork evidence shows that these transfers have directly exacerbated local political conflicts. The new ‘localist’ policy paradigm is unlikely to be effective when, as in contemporary Peru, national political institutions are not supportive.

This article analyzes the Catholic Church’s involvement in social confl icts resulting from resource extraction activities in Peru. The nature and degree of the Catholic Church’s involvement vary greatly according to the type of confl ict and the diversity of standpoints of the Church at the local level. The article focuses on three distinctive, widely known conflicts against the expansion of extractive activities. It shows that the importance conventionally given to the role of particular religious fi gures, their adherence to progressive ideologies, and the defense of the Church’s strategic interests do not fully encompass the complexity of local processes. In contrast, the article contends that the Church’s institutional embeddedness in local networks is the most infl uential factor in the involvement of Catholic organizations in anti-mining confl icts. Embeddedness coincides with a spirituality that prioritizes local people’s agency, whereby the priests and Church organizations accompany and follow the initiatives of local communities instead of taking a leading role. This does not mean that the Church takes a passive stance in these confl icts. Priests and other pastoral agents have incorporated environmental and human rights discourses into an explicit religious framework that amplifies the social space of the Church and provides legitimacy for mobilizations. In parallel, locally generated doctrinal frameworks permeate the offi cial discourse of the Catholic Church, reinforcing the position of those committed to the defense of local demands.

Les mobilisations contre l'exploitation minière constituent un moment propice pour observer la construction sociale des ressources dites "naturelles". Le conflit autour du projet Minas Conga (2011-2016), dans le département de Cajamarca au Pérou, permet d'analyser la reconstruction de la ressource hydrique dans une relation d'opposition au secteur minier, par des acteurs multiples agissant à différentes échelles. En s'inscrivant dans des registres divers: légal, scientifique et moral, l'eau est présentée comme une ressource source de vie, à protéger de l'activité humaine. Pourtant, dans ce conflit, l'eau apparaît aussi comme un acteur non-humain à part entière, à la fois forte et faible, bienveillante et dangereuse.

Este artículo realiza una revisión analítica de la literatura sobre los procesos de negociación que emergen de conflictos asociados a la minería, en particular en el Perú. Busca identificar los lineamientos teóricos cruciales que ofrece esta literatura. Estos lineamientos, ayudan a problematizar futuras investigaciones sobre los desafíos de estos procesos de negociación y su capacidad para superar el conflicto. Finalmente, a partir de estos lineamientos, el artículo presenta y discute brevemente los artículos del volumen Industrias extractivas, conflictos, negociaciones y diálogos en el Perú.