Ruins in the making: socio-spatial struggles over extraction and export in the Sino-Mongolian Borderlands

Abstract

ABSTRACT Mongolia’s fabulous mineral wealth has led to competition and conflict amongst multiple stakeholders. Here we examine local struggles over extraction and export in the Sino-Mongolia Borderlands to offer a perspective on contemporary rural governance transformations in mining frontiers. Grounding years of in-country research with in-depth participant insights, we present and analyze the dilemmas faced by local government actors in Mongolia’s Gobi mining belt in order to problematize the dichotomy between conflict or cooperation on the steppe. Given the fleeting and inherently environmentally destructive nature of open-pit mineral extraction on land traditionally used by mobile pastoralists, how do local authorities negotiate for a better future for their locality and constituents? Drawing inspiration from theoretical work on ruination, we highlight the material and spatial elements of contestations over land, territory and development. By leveraging laws related to environmental protection, bureaucratic procedures and corporate social responsibility, local authorities have found creative ways to slow down the physical destruction of their lands from mineral extraction, salvage space for traditional livelihoods and capture benefits for local investment. These forms of institutional resistance, however, reveal the weakening of local institutions in rural governance as local authorities and citizens are excluded from large-scale development decision-making processes.