Toward a Reconfiguration of Mining Infrastructure in Mexico: Norms, Resistance, and Governance

Abstract

This paper offers an analytical framework to identify how communities that have been negatively affected by mineral extraction and its infrastructure can begin to transition toward an emancipatory approach to overcome their marginalization, which has been accentuated by the socio-environmental conflicts caused by mining. We argue that through the extractivism–infrastructure nexus, alternative options to overcome these conflicts can be unveiled and unpacked. By comparing two Mexican mining cases—the Sonora River region in the northwest of the country and the Oaxaca highlands in the southeast—we identify the instances of everyday resistance, struggle, and contestation that are important to assessing emancipation. The cases show how non-Indigenous communities, inspired by Indigenous groups, can begin to think differently and move toward a transition that is more socio-environmentally just. Building on interlegal and municipalism debates, we argue that this transition can be accomplished through a focus on narratives, practices, and norms within four analytical factors: normative frameworks, legacies of social movements, local governance, and alternative economies. Our argument offers an alternative way to investigate the function infrastructural projects have in municipal policy-making.