Abstract
Among women opposing expansion of mining operations in Cajamarca, Peru, narratives of preferred alternatives diverge: from sustainable mining to alternative economic development, to more radical alternatives to ‘development’. In these accounts, both the women's relative powerlessness and agency become apparent. This article critically explores women's views of development and their imaginings of their region with or without mining. I argue that those who opposed mining show a continuing engagement with questions of development in the aftermath of conflict over natural resource extraction, highlighting a common thread of desires for bottom‐up initiatives embracing local knowledge, practice and history.
Highlights
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The fact that development strategies that do not include the Conga mine, or large-scale mining in general, are considered ‘alternative(s)’, reflects how swiftly natural resource extraction has become central to perceptions of what ‘development’ entails for Cajamarca and the region’s contribution to Peru’s economic growth
This highlights the ubiquity of the ‘mining-as-development’ paradigm, and goes some way to explaining the seeming contradiction in the apparent lack of optimism observed after the social movements succeeded in preventing the opening of the Conga mine
Summary
This article contributes to academic exploration of the aftermath of intense socio-environmental protest, an area of research that is likely to expand over the coming years (Bebbington, 2015) It does so by critically examining how women who had been involved in large-scale socio-environmental mobilisations have continued to engage with debates over development alternatives to mining in its aftermath. I argue that the common thread in their varying narratives was a desire for inclusive, localised forms of ‘development’ informed by their experiences and interpretations of local history and economic practice
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