Everyday violence: Tigyit coal mine and coal-fired power plant in Shan State, Myanmar

Abstract

Resource extraction sites are violent. They often begin in violence and operate through violence. In this paper we build on ethnographic research in southern Shan State, Myanmar and focus on Tigyit Coal Mine and Power Plant to highlight how civil society activist have conceptualized violence. We argue that through the processes of coal production and the operations of a coal-fired power plant, an everyday violence emerges. This violence results from the physical byproducts of building and operating a coal mine and power plant and the structural impacts of the policies used to manage the project. Everyday violence offers a grounded perspective that looks at the daily, accumulating, and interconnected environmental and life-making impacts from extractive industries.