This chapter examines Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and community engagement strategies, illustrating how companies have used these tactics to neutralize community resistance and create a favourable social environment for operations. It focuses first on efforts by the Canadian junior Almaden Minerals to obtain the so-called ‘social licence to operate’ for its Ixtaca gold–silver project in the Sierra Norte de Puebla, Mexico; and then on the conflict between the Canadian giant Barrick Gold and communities in the north of San Juan, Argentina, following repeated spills at its Veladero gold and silver mine.
‘mining today provides very little in the way of employment. For reasons of both safety and efficiency, technology has replaced much of the workforce in the sector. Most of the employment is short term, available only during the construction phase. Once mines are up and running, demand for labour is minimal, and is largely for skilled professionals who are hired not from local communities, but from elsewhere in the country and sometimes from abroad.’
Second People’s Water Summit at the Río Jáchal 2019. Credit: Oscar Martinez
‘The terms are always dictated by the more powerful party, which is the company. This distorts any consultation process or social intervention strategy.’
– Lucio Cuenca, director of the Latin American Observatory of Environmental Conflicts (OLCA), Santiago de Chile
Sierra Norte de Puebla. Credit: Alejandro Marreros
‘At the moment, the company is using the building that used to host the town council as their office … And that’s very symbolic. What they’re saying, is “We’re the ones in charge now. The one who calls the shots in this community is the company Minera Gorrión.”’
– Alejandro Marreros, of the Consejo Tiyat Tlali, a network of social organizations in the Sierra Norte de Puebla, Mexico
Hydro energy may represent a form of clean, renewable energy, but the expansion of hydro in Guatemala has driven social conflict between the government, multinationals and the indigenous populations.
Conversing with Goliath is a research project carried out by
FLACSO-Mexico and De Montfort University, Leicester, UK, sponsored by the
British Academy (2017-2020). The project aims...
Conversing with Goliath is a research project carried out by FLACSO-Mexico and De Montfort University, Leicester, UK, sponsored by the British Academy (2017-2020). The...
A project called 'Talking to Goliath' has mapped social and environmental conflicts across the length and breadth of Mexico, caused by the development, expansion...
Pretty Faces, Grisly Interests
This article was published on the website of Canadian progressive magazine Briarpatch. LAB has added titles and images.
Main image: Banner...
This article was re-published from Ricochet by UpsideDownWorld. You can see the original here.
Header image:(L-R): Amalia Cac Tiul, Elena Choc Quib, Carmelina Caal Ical,...
Bebbington, A., Humphreys Bebbington, D., Hinojosa, L., Burneo, M. and Bury, J. (2013) ‘Anatomies of Conflict: Social Mobilisation and New Political Ecologies of the Andes’, in A. Bebbington and J. Bury, eds., Subterranean Struggles. New Dynamics of Mining, Oil, and Gas in Latin America. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, pp. 241–266.
Godfrid, J. (2018) ‘La implementación de iniciativas de responsabilidad social empresaria en el sector minero. Un estudio a partir de los casos Alumbrera y Veladero’, in L.A. Huwiler and J. Godfrid, eds., Megaminería en América Latina: Estados empresas transnacionales y conflictos socioambientales, pp. 199–228.
Martínez, M., Evangelista, V., Basurto, F., Mendoza, M. and Cruz-Rivas, A. (2007) ‘Flora útil de los cafetales en la Sierra Norte de Puebla, México’, Revista Mexicana de Biodiversidad, 78, pp. 15–40. Available at: <http://www.ejournal.unam.mx/bio/BIOD78-01/BIO007800103.pdf> [Accessed 2 May 2022].
Rangan, V., Chase, L. and Karim, S. (2015) ‘The Truth About CSR’. Harvard Business Review. Available at: <https://hbr.org/2015/01/the-truth-about-csr> [Accessed 2 May 2022].
