Efectos socioterritoriales de la mega minería y reacción social: el caso de Minera Alumbrera en la provincia de Catamarca, Argentina

Abstract

This article addresses the implementation of large-scale mining projects and their social and spatial eff ects in the Argentinian province of Catamarca. A case study was carried out in the town of Andalgalá, located within the area of operation of the open-pit mining project Bajo la Alumbrera. Interviews were made with various stakeholders aff ected by the project with the objective to analyze, on one side, diff erent dimensions of socio-territorial transformations provoked by the project, and, on the other side, the civil society-based movement which emerged in reaction to it and namely the role played by women. The article concludes that the benefits of the megaproject are weak and poorly redistributed, that the inequalities have been reinforced at diff erent scales, and that women have been important protagonists of the social movement triggered by the opposition to the project.