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Paper short abstract

Based on the Arica Victims v. Boliden Mineral case, this paper examines how affective conditions were actively produced in the courtroom to shed light on intangible yet strongly felt dimensions of environmental suffering.

Paper long abstract

In the mid-1980s, the Swedish mining corporation Boliden Mineral sent 20,000 tonnes of mining waste to Arica, the northernmost city of Chile. Allegedly, this material was to be treated by a local company specialised in metal recycling. Nevertheless, the recycling never began, and the material ended up abandoned in the middle of what became a densely inhabited residential area. Almost three decades later, 796 residents of this area filed a lawsuit against Boliden in the Court of Skellefteå, in northern Sweden. In particular, they argued that the pollution caused by the mining waste was a cause of anxiety and concern, which, in their view, entitled them to receive compensation from Boliden.

Based on records of the hearings held in Sweden, this paper examines how affective conditions were actively produced in the courtroom to render highly intimate and elusive forms of environmental suffering visible. Focusing particularly on the interactions between lawyers and witnesses, it analyses, first, how legal actors sought to enact an emotionally charged atmosphere as a strategy to reveal harms and causal relationships that escape scientific observation. Second, it shows how these efforts were eroded not just by Boliden’s defence strategies, but also by the very sociotechnical arrangements put in place to enable the claimants’ witnesses to deliver their testimonies.

Ultimately, this presentation seeks to connect the reflection on affective governance with questions of environmental justice by empirically illustrating how the grammar of emotions is mobilised to shed light on intangible yet strongly felt dimensions of environmental suffering.