The glocalization of mining conflict: Cases from Peru

Investments in extractive industries, predominantly mining, have catalyzed significant economic growth at the national level in Latin America. However, they have also been met with opposition and resistance from many local communities. This paper argues that global extractive industries have not only introduced radical changes and territorial pressures across many local communities but have also introduced important changes in the “dynamics of contention.” The paper analyzes the ‘glocalization’ of mining conflict, examining, on one hand, the globalization of communities' mobilization against mining, and on the other, the localization and fragmentation of these protests domestically. It argues that the combination of three conditions has provoked these simultaneous and paradoxical characteristics. First, technological changes within the mining industry have led to an increasing geographical extension of mining operations, reaching small localities where the industry had never arrived before. Second, the centrality of the industry in the economy of the country has resulted in a direct institutional nexus and in a contentious ‘counterpoint' between scattered mining communities and agencies of the central government. Third, rural communities opposing transnational mining companies have become allied to transnational networks of activism injecting mobilization resources and facilitating international media coverage.