Castillo Guzmán

This book uses a multimethod approach to examine local experience of contemporary mining development in the Peruvian Andes, creating an understanding of the transformations that rural societies experience in this context.

Mining is a major component of economic growth in many resource endowed countries, whilst also causing mixed social, cultural, and environmental effects. Most current literature on contemporary mining in Peru is largely focussed on conflict; however, in this text, the author takes a differing approach by examining the experiences of families in the vicinity of Rio Tinto’s La Granja exploration copper project, Northern Peru, an area with great significance due to the mining investment and development, which has taken place over the past 25 years. The book first provides a critical discussion about production of space theories, and debates on spatial mobility, highlighting their relevance to understanding large-scale mining developments, especially in the Peruvian Andes. The following chapters analyze spatial transformations mining development has prompted, focusing on four axes: access to space, production, mobility, and representations of space. A comprehensive narrative is constructed drawing on diverse voices and perspectives, including those of family heads and their partners, local leaders, company employees, and social scientists. The book concludes by discussing how the findings challenge some of the current accounts of the social effects of mining developement on rural communities and pose significant implications for sustainable development programs and place-based practices.

By taking an interdisciplinary approach, this book will appeal to a wide audience including geographers, social anthropologists, and social scientists interested in the social effects of mining as well as researchers interested in current Latin American Studies and Rural Development.

Gerardo Castillo Guzmán is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (PUCP), Coordinator of the Anthropology at the City Research Group at PUCP and Honorary Research Fellow at the Centre for Social Responsibility in Mining at the University of Queensland’s Sustainable Minerals Institute, Australia.