Abstract

SORAIRE, Florencia. Between Mother Earth and the Mother of All Industries. Trab. soc. [online]. 2014, n.23, pp.425-438. ISSN 1514-6871.

The minerals that global market has turned into non-renewable and strategic natural resources rest hidden deep in the heart of the Andes Mountain Range. Foreign-capital companies invest thousands of millions of dollars to extract them, blessed with the favors of governments who look with fine eyes the mineral exploitation in their territories. Surface mega-mining in Argentina poses a particular case: in the socio-environmental conflict that surrounds the activity among the operative undertakings and the communities near the mines, the miners themselves enter a stand-off with their own neighbors, family, and friends, who self-convened a meeting to expel mining companies outside the country. The fight to impose a meaning to the hills, somewhere between a “sacred site” as part of the Pachamama (Mother Earth) and a “productive territory,” evidences the flash point between both groups, manifesting the tension which exists around a productive activity with a significant presence in Argentinean society for more than a decade. We will now present a case and the challenges it creates.

Keywords : Mother Earth; Mega-mining; Human Resources; Socio-Environmental Conflicts; Argentina.

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