Title: Political Ecology of Mining Conflicts in Latin America
Author/Institution: Mariana Walter – PhD Thesis, Autonomous University of Barcelona
Publication Year: 2013
Community Consent and the Politics of Extraction
Walter’s dissertation provides one of the most influential theoretical frameworks for understanding mining conflicts across Latin America. Through a political-ecology lens, she argues that disputes around extractive projects are not isolated environmental problems, but structural confrontations over power, identity, and access to territory. Her research shows how mining companies, in alliance with state institutions, often define “development” in narrow economic terms—while affected communities articulate alternative visions rooted in environmental justice, cultural heritage, and self-determination. The result is a legitimacy crisis that transforms mining from an economic engine into a field of social resistance.
Methodological Approach and Comparative Evidence
Drawing on ethnographic research, participatory mapping, and discourse analysis in Peru, Ecuador, and Mexico, Walter explores how communities frame mining as both a material and symbolic struggle. She analyzes protest narratives, environmental-impact hearings, and legal mobilizations, revealing how communities construct legitimacy through collective identity and networks of solidarity. Her comparative method exposes patterns of environmental degradation, procedural injustice, and state capture by corporate interest conditions that systematically erode the social license to operate.
Implications for Mining Governance and Policy
Walter’s findings reframe “community opposition” as a rational political response to unbalanced decision- making rather than an obstacle to progress. She argues that enduring social license requires a redefinition of governance to include deliberative consent, rights recognition, and territorial co-management. The thesis remains foundational for scholars and policymakers seeking to understand why extractive projects across Latin America repeatedly face social conflict despite formal compliance. For corporate actors, it serves as a cautionary analysis: legitimacy cannot be purchased or outsourced—it must be co-produced through genuine participation and justice in environmental governance.