Abstract

MOSCHENI, Margarita. A Case Study in Mining and Unsustainable Development: San Juan, Argentina. Prob. Des [online]. 2019, vol.50, n.196, pp.113-138. ISSN 0301-7036.  https://doi.org/10.22201/iiec.20078951e.2019.196.64823.

“Mining is the main engine of development”, is one of the most commonly used arguments in support of the activity. This paper is the product of comprehensive interpretive research, which aims to test this hypothesis, using extractive mining in San Juan, a province in the center-west of Argentina, as a case study. One of the key findings of this study is that high foreign investment in mining is not synonymous with development. To the contrary, mining creates growth which is concentrated, exclusive and unsustainable, and which undermines external commercial apparatus, displaces traditional modes of production and triggers a process of socio-environmental conflicts, causing irreversible ecological damage.

Keywords : Mining; San Juan province; foreign investment; exports; environmental pollution; ecological damage.

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