Paper short abstract:

Taking the banning of mining in El Salvador as a case study, this paper shows why environmental policies respond to ideas and values that are not reducible to material interests. This paper proposes a cultural political economy approach to analysing how the environment and business are governed.

Paper long abstract:

Analysis that focuses on economic interests and power leaves little space for imagining how citizens can organise and protect ecosystems. Nor is it useful for explaining why governments would introduce strong legislation prioritising environment sustainability over business interests. I argue that while political economy dynamics are important for analysing the business-environment-development nexus, so too are ideas and cultural forms of power. Following Sum and Jessop (2013) and others, I propose a cultural political economy approach to understanding the power relations, interests and ideas that give rise to environmental regulation.

Using the case study of the mining ban in El Salvador, I show how citizen organisations can increase their power to protect the ecosystems that they rely on. Communities successfully campaigned against mining in El Salvador by forming alliances nationally and internationally and drawing on cultural and political power to confront economic power. The case study demonstrates how ideas and discourse were important in changing how people perceived the environment and mining, whether as a source of profit and development or as a threat to 'everyone's home'. Finally, the case study demonstrates how interests and values at an international level shaped national legislation that governs the relationship between business and the environment.