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Published in:
Contested Extractivism, Society and the State: An Introduction Read chapter Read first chapter

2017 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

Politics of Scale and Struggles over Mining in Colombia

Author : Kristina Dietz

Published in: Contested Extractivism, Society and the State

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan UK

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Abstract

This chapter analyses the interrelations between struggles over mining and scalar configurations of political power. It draws on an anti-mining protest in the department of Tolima, Colombia, where the South African company AngloGold Ashanti is currently preparing to open an industrial gold mine. The chapter aims to show that struggles over mining are located within the interactions between state structures and the agency of local actors. It is shown that scalar configurations of power, for example political institutions, de- and recentralisation policies and legal frameworks, constrain and enable social engagement in struggles over mining. At the same time, through the exertion of participatory citizenship, actors opposing an industrial mining project contest the scaled geography of state power. Theoretically, the chapter combines insights from debates on the politics of scale, and from critical development and democracy studies.

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previous chapter Small-Scale Gold Mining and the State in the Philippines
next chapter Not All Glitter Is Gold: Mining Conflicts in Burkina Faso
Footnotes
1
Gold prices declined sharply between 2011 and 2015, but are currently once again on the increase. At the beginning of March 2016, the gold price oscillated around US$ 1230 per ounce, compared to US$ 1050 at the end of 2015, see http://​www.​bloomberg.​com/​markets/​commodities/​futures/​metals, date accessed 02 March 2016.
 
3
I thank all those who supported the empirical work in Colombia for their time and trust. I would also like to thank Bettina Engels and Carla Noever for their helpful comments on an earlier draft of this paper and the Andean office of the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation for the invitation to a three-day excursion to Tolima in September 2015. The research was supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) as part of the project “Global Change – Local Conflicts?”.
 
4
The International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention 169 on the rights of indigenous peoples and tribal populations requires national governments to ensure prior and informed consent of indigenous communities before making decisions that affect them or their territory (Schilling-Vacaflor and Flemmer 2013; Rodríguez Garavito and Orduz Salinas 2012).
 
5
With the adoption of the National Development Plan 2014–2018 in June 2015 (Law 1753, 2015), the differentiation between small-, medium- and large-scale mining was reintroduced with the aim of fostering the formalisation of small- and medium-scale mining activities.
 
6
Presentation of the Comité ambiental en defensa de la Vida, Piedras, 04 September 2015; interview with local activist, Piedras, 04 September 2015.
 
7
‘The State is the owner of the subsoil and of the natural, non-renewable resources without prejudice to the rights acquired and fulfilled in accordance with prior laws’ (Art. 332, Constitution of 1991).
 
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Metadata
Title
Politics of Scale and Struggles over Mining in Colombia
Author
Kristina Dietz
Copyright Year
2017
Book
Contested Extractivism, Society and the State

Print ISBN: 978-1-137-58810-4

Electronic ISBN: 978-1-137-58811-1

Copyright Year: 2017

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58811-1_6