Democratic struggles and mining capitalism: the case of the Conga conflict in Peru
(2015) Anthropology Underground: The Politics of Contemporary Resource Extraction — Location: University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (MI), USA (4.April.2015)
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- Abstract
- This article will analyze the opposition to the Conga mining project, in the Cajamarca region, in Peru, as an attempt by citizens to demand a real participation in decision making in a regime that is increasingly becoming a mining capitalist State. The article opens with an overview of the history of mining in the region. Subsequently, it analyses the multifaceted approach followed by the opposition to the Conga project, played on different fields, to make the voice of “no” heard and considered as the will of the people. First, a legal field in which the law is an instrument of power as well of resistance; second, a technical-scientific field in which battles between assessments and counter-assessments take place; third, a political (electoral and post-electoral) field; and, finally a fourth field, with occupations and protests in the streets and in the areas of mining operations. The article concludes with a broad reflection on the dispossession created by mining capitalism and on the demands for real democracy as the fundamental claim underlying such popular movements.
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Piccoli, E. (2015). Democratic struggles and mining capitalism: the case of the Conga conflict in Peru. Anthropology Underground: The Politics of Contemporary Resource Extraction, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (MI), USA. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/48157