20235504(en)/7 - “Temporary Mining Andeanization”: A New Form of Organization of Large-Scale Mining Labour in Andean Contexts in the 21st Century
“TEMPORARY MINING ANDEANIZATION”: A NEW FORM OF ORGANIZATION OF LARGE-SCALE MINING LABOUR IN ANDEAN CONTEXTS IN THE 21ST CENTURY
LA “ANDINIZACIÓN TEMPORAL MINERA”: NUEVA FORMA DE ORGANIZACIÓN DEL TRABAJO MINERO A GRAN ESCALA EN CONTEXTOS ANDINOS EN EL SIGLO XXI
Lautaro Clemenceau
This article analyzes the forms that corporate domination takes on mining workers in current large-scale projects operating in Andean ecological contexts. To analyze this phenomenon, I propose the concept of “temporary mining andeanization” and define its theoretical and empirical scope in discussion with other investigations. The central hypothesis is that the Andes mountain range presents a series of ecological problems for the current global way in which mining companies organize work on a large scale. Global companies by displaying their way of organizing work through a temporary fixation of workers in Andean ecology, put into action a series of adaptive strategies (physiological, technological and cultural) to accustom workers not used to work and habitat. temporary in the Andes and manage to produce minerals for the market. To account for this phenomenon, I turn to the analysis of a large-scale mining project at high altitudes, located in the Andes mountain range in the northwest of the San Juan Province, Argentina, and I articulate the perspectives of Labor Sociology and Anthropology with an ethnographic fieldwork carried out between 2015 and 2019.
