New perspectives on conflicts: A comparative study on perceptions on large and small-scale mining in Peru

• In Event: Markets, Settlements and Resettlements: Mining in Latin America from the 19th Century to the Present

Abstract

Hand in hand with the economic growth generated by mining investments, Peru has witnessed an impressive proliferation of mining conflicts over the last 15 years. So far, economic, environmental, and social accounts have failed to identify the determinants of these conflicts. Because of their exclusive focus on large-scale mining, these explanations cannot account for the proliferation of artisanal mining in towns that previously opposed large-scale mining activities, and this inevitably hinders their ability to empirically discard other alternatives. This paper puts forward a comparative study of local communities’ perceptions of mining at different scales – large-scale and artisanal mining – to explain the rationale behind the opposition or tolerance to mining activities. Mining activities bring about sociopolitical transformations that upset the local communities’ internal equilibria. I argue that the perception of local communities about their role in the new sociopolitical context lies at the basis of mining conflicts. The more excluded they see themselves in the new context the more likely are conflicts to erupt. This paper is based on quantitative and qualitative research conducted on the field in the northern coast of Peru, where large-scale mining was vehemently opposed while artisanal mining is now proliferating without generating the same local reaction.

Author

• Zarai Toledo Orozco