Civic space restrictions beyond open repression: Mining and environmental defenders in Northern Chile

Abstract

With a focus on northern Chile – a region that has historically been influenced by mining – this paper investigates the restrictions imposed on civil society actors in opposition to mineral resource extraction. In doing so, it links two political and academic debates: natural resource extraction and civil society's operational space. Little literature investigates restrictions of civic space in relatively safe contexts like liberal democracies. Therefore, referring to van der Borgh and Terwindt (2012, 2014), who suggest that different political contexts produce different restrictions for civil society actors, this paper argues that a more sensitive approach to the form of restrictions in democratic contexts has to be developed. This paper draws on examples from the mining sector, which has been identified as particularly vulnerable with regard to civic space. Land and environmental defenders in northern Chile can be observed to be in a constant negotiation process to position themselves between cooperation with mining companies and resistance in order to preserve their operational space. Subtle restrictions may weaken their capacity to collectively take action and pursue economic, social, and/or ecological demands coherently.