Hidden tunnels, drowned dragons, and other subterranean secrets: Environmental politics of small-scale mining in Colombia

Abstract

In this article, I seek to make meaning of small-scale mining landscapes that are not only the object, but also the subject of politics. More specifically, I explore how in Colombia, the physical world of informalized small-scale miners (their technology, topography, and geology) mediates their relationship with the state bureaucracy. While drawing from ethnographic literature on “clandestine” and “natural” infrastructures, I maintain that tunnels, excavators, dredges, mountains, and forests are politically charged matter that enable miners not only to extract minerals, but also to keep such prohibited work hidden from state agents—or at least, to keep those agents at bay. Thus, unlike conventional analyses of small-scale mining, I invoke miners’ relationship with their work environment, not as one more argument of why they should or should not be included in political formations, but instead to contend that they already participate in politics, albeit often outside the formal channels of liberal democracy.