Activist Networks, Territory, and the Spatial Diffusion of Mining Conflicts

Abstract

This article examines how activist networks contribute to the spatial diffusion of mining conflicts. We conduct a spatial econometric analysis of 590 geolocated mining properties in five countries of Latin America (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, and Peru), using the univariate local joint count test and the spatial autoregressive probit method. Empirically, the analysis provides strong and generalizable evidence for the spatial diffusion of conflicts related to mining, namely that a social conflict in a given mine site can be considered an independent cause of a distinct social conflict in another proximate mine site that is additional to the localized factors considered in the quantitative and qualitative literature to date. Moreover, we show that the diffusion effect is most evident at a territorial level of analysis, which leads us to make the theoretical argument that the diffusion of collective action depends on the geospatial resonance of activist claims and mobilizing frames based on a common territorial experience among otherwise distant groups. The concept of geospatial resonance contributes to contemporary efforts to conceptually and empirically specify the limitations to a relational understanding of scale.