This book uses a multimethod approach to examine local experience of contemporary mining development in the Peruvian Andes, creating an understanding of the transformations that rural societies experience in this context. Mining is a major component of economic growth in many resource endowed countries, whilst also causing mixed social, cultural, and environmental effects. Most current literature on contemporary mining in Peru is largely focussed on conflict; however, in this text, the author takes a differing approach by examining the experiences of families in the vicinity of Rio Tinto’s La Granja exploration copper project, Northern Peru, an area with great significance due to the mining investment and development, which has taken place over the past 25 years. The book first provides a critical discussion about production of space theories, and debates on spatial mobility, highlighting their relevance to understanding large-scale mining developments, especially in the Peruvian Andes. The following chapters analyze spatial transformations mining development has prompted, focusing on four axes: access to space, production, mobility, and representations of space. A comprehensive narrative is constructed drawing on diverse voices and perspectives, including those of family heads and their partners, local leaders, company employees, and social scientists. The book concludes by discussing how the findings challenge some of the current accounts of the social effects of mining developement on rural communities and pose significant implications for sustainable development programs and place-based practices. By taking an interdisciplinary approach, this book will appeal to a wide audience including geographers, social anthropologists, and social scientists interested in the social effects of mining as well as researchers interested in current Latin American Studies and Rural Development.

This book examines patterns of growth, stagnation, and crisis in the Peruvian mining industry in twentieth century, presenting an assessment of the nature of some internal constraints which prevents mining companies in Peru from responding to price incentives and increased demand for their products.

This book uses a multimethod approach to examine local experience of contemporary mining development in the Peruvian Andes, creating an understanding of the transformations that rural societies experience in this context. Mining is a major component of economic growth in many resource endowed countries, whilst also causing mixed social, cultural, and environmental effects. Most current literature on contemporary mining in Peru is largely focussed on conflict; however, in this text, the author takes a differing approach by examining the experiences of families in the vicinity of Rio Tinto's La Granja exploration copper project, Northern Peru, an area with great significance due to the mining investment and development, which has taken place over the past 25 years. The book first provides a critical discussion about production of space theories, and debates on spatial mobility, highlighting their relevance to understanding large-scale mining developments, especially in the Peruvian Andes. The following chapters analyze spatial transformations mining development has prompted, focusing on four axes: access to space, production, mobility, and representations of space. A comprehensive narrative is constructed drawing on diverse voices and perspectives, including those of family heads and their partners, local leaders, company employees, and social scientists. The book concludes by discussing how the findings challenge some of the current accounts of the social effects of mining developement on rural communities and pose significant implications for sustainable development programs and place-based practices. By taking an interdisciplinary approach, this book will appeal to a wide audience including geographers, social anthropologists, and social scientists interested in the social effects of mining as well as researchers interested in current Latin American Studies and Rural Development.

Mining investment in Peru has been presented as necessary for national progress; however, it also has brought socioenvironmental costs, left unfulfilled hopes for development, and has become a principal source of confrontation and conflict. Fighting for Andean Resources focuses on the competing agendas for mining benefits and the battles over their impact on proximate communities in the recent expansion of the Peruvian mining frontier. The book complements renewed scrutiny of how globalization nurtures not solely antagonism but also negotiation and participation. Having mastered an intimate knowledge of Peru, Vladimir R. Gil Ramón insightfully documents how social technologies of power are applied through social technical protocols of accountability invoked in defense of nature and vulnerable livelihoods. Although analyses point to improvements in human well-being, a political and technical debate has yet to occur in practice that would define what such improvements would be, the best way to achieve and measure them, and how to integrate dimensions such as sustainability and equity. Many confrontations stem from frustrated expectations, environmental impacts, and the virtual absence of state apparatus in the locations where new projects emerged. This book presents a multifaceted perspective on the processes of representation, the strategies in conflicts and negotiations of development and nature management, and the underlying political actions in sites affected by mining.

This thesis examines the effects of a collection of policies that determine the mandatory distribution of mining, gas and oil revenues between national and subnational governments, and the greater involvement of mining companies in local development. I have labelled this set of policies, which aims to reduce social conflict and promote local development, the New Extractive Industry Strategy (NEIS). Chapter 1 describes the implementation of these policies in Peru and highlights their significance to the mining industry worldwide. Chapter 2 describes the methodology of the thesis and introduces the three field research regions. Chapter 3 outlines the national socio-political context for the implementation of the NEIS. Chapters 4-6 deal with the effects of the NEIS on social conflict. I argue that the implementation of the NEIS has not only failed to reduce conflict but has actually exacerbated it. After reviewing the debates linking extraction and conflict (Chapter 4), Chapter 5 demonstrates that conflict is strongly associated with the volume of mining revenue received by sub-national governments. Chapter 6 presents a typology of conflicts that helps to explain the correlation between mining revenue and unrest. In addition to well-known conflicts that are related to the adverse impact of mining on livelihoods and the environment, the study identifies two other types. In the first, peasant communities employ social conflict to increase their bargaining power with the mining companies for material compensation. In the second, the large volume of mining revenue generates disputes over access to or use of these financial transfers. Chapters 7-8 show that the NEIS has not delivered its development promises. Chapter 7 illustrates how regional and municipal governments in receipt of high per capita volumes of mining revenue transfers did not improve their economic and welfare indicators any more than the rest of the country. Chapter 8 proposes that a combination of obstructive political factors trapped regional and municipal authorities and local populations in a myopic political game that prioritised quick short-term spending over any long-term benefits to be gained from better planned expenditure. Finally, Chapter 9 draws some conclusions and makes some suggestions.

This book analyses the institutional development that the Peruvian state has undergone in recent years within a context of rapid extractive industry expansion. It addresses the most important institutional state transformations produced directly by natural resources growth. This includes the construction of a redistributive law with the mining canon; the creation of a research canon for public universities; the development of new institutions for environmental regulation; the legitimation of state involvement in the function of prevention and management of conflicts; and the institutionalization and dissemination of practices of participation and local consultation.