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People's Participation in Decision Making in Mining in Peru: Exploitation or Opportunity?

Kim, Ana Estefanía

Abstract Details

2015, Master of Science, Ohio State University, Environment and Natural Resources.
There has been an aggressive expansion of capital investment in mining, oil, and gas extraction since the 1990s in the Global South. There are three main reasons for this. First, states needed to increase revenues and rising international mineral prices facilitated access to deposits formerly too expensive to extract. Second, policies and institutional changes were favorable for investors leading to a business-friendly regulatory environment that was a result of the liberalization of capital, which included promulgation of new mining codes. Third, there was a worldwide growth in demand for minerals from rapidly industrializing countries like China. Peru has become one of the leading producers of copper, zinc, tin, and lead since the 1990s. Growth of the mining industry in Peru has coincided with international attention to issues of social and environmental justice in mining areas. This has led to the development of international conventions and Peruvian laws and norms to protect the rights of indigenous peoples to participate in decision making in areas slated for mining. In 2013 and 2014, I conducted document analysis and ethnographic case study research in Peru to examine the role of indigenous participation in negotiations surrounding the establishment of a new mining project in indigenous and peasant territory. I raised two main questions in this study: 1) Are legislated processes spaces where actors, specifically those whose lives are directly impacted by mining activity, genuinely experience positive transformative opportunities to benefit the community in social, political, or economic terms? 2) Do those invited spaces, where a heterogeneous set of actors with significant status differences are brought together, constitute a space for these actors to engage in a mutual and respectful exchange as outlined by ideals of citizen participation and devolution of power? The analysis of this study revealed that what was actually being practiced was not genuine participation. Instead, the created spaces for participation reinforced structural patterns of injustice and power imbalances that trumped the introduction of “democratic ideals and practices” in legislation.
Cathy Rakowski (Advisor)
120 p.

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Kim, A. E. (2015). People's Participation in Decision Making in Mining in Peru: Exploitation or Opportunity? [Master's thesis, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1437495265

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Kim, Ana. People's Participation in Decision Making in Mining in Peru: Exploitation or Opportunity? . 2015. Ohio State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1437495265.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Kim, Ana. "People's Participation in Decision Making in Mining in Peru: Exploitation or Opportunity? ." Master's thesis, Ohio State University, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1437495265

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)