A glocal environmental movement against gold mining: Pascua–Lama in Chile

Abstract

Gold mining projects are spreading in Latin America due to increasing international interest in gold and to the legal reforms that attract mining investment to the region. As metal mining has critical social and environmental impacts, conflicts related to it are also soaring. The conflict around the Pascua–Lama mining project in Chile is a paradigmatic example of these conflicts. Starting with the defence of some mountain glaciers being endangered by the mine, local protests have been internationalized. It has become one of the most important Chilean environmental conflicts of recent years. In order to characterise the movement, the article analyses its social bases or participants, the values and arguments articulated and the strategies developed. This agency analysis shows that it is not a case of environmentalism of the poor or of post-materialist environmentalism, but a glocal environmental movement. The movement has not achieved to stop the project due to structural limitations; but it has been able to problematise and politicise the concept of development in the affected Chilean valley.