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Paper short abstract:

The informal mining sector has a variety of impacts on the populations affected by it and their ability to act collectively, both in mining settlements and the miners’ home communities. This presentation looks at this problem in relation to sustainability by drawing on evidence collected from PhD fieldwork in Peru.

Paper long abstract:

There is much discussion in the literature about local people acting collectively in a bid to prevent large-scale mining developments. A number of countries in Latin America have seen protests against the multi-national corporations who are attempting to establish gold mines as it is felt that these developments have serious environmental consequences with little economic benefits for those who live locally.

However, both collective action and sustainability come in many different forms and mean different things to different actors. While much of the literature on collective action focuses on large-scale mining, the analysis of the social relationships that form and evolve around the informal and illegal mining sectors can also contribute to an of understanding economic and environmental sustainability.

In Peru, large numbers of families are involved in the informal mining sector in some way, with a large majority of these migrating from the Andes to work in mining settlements in Madre de Dios. In most cases, it is only working-age males who migrate, with their wives and families usually staying behind. This not only creates a trans-local community, but also has implications for the economic sustainability of households and communities in both regions and influences the strength of community ties and collective actions.

This presentation discusses preliminary findings from 5 months PhD fieldwork in Peru, during which a series of in-depth interviews were conducted with informal miners and their families. It will focus on the collective action insights arising from the data collection and their links to sustainability.