Periodic Reporting for period 1 - MINPOL (From mining policy to grassroot politics. Industrial citizenship in times of crisis)
Reporting period: 2021-09-01 to 2023-08-31
Some mines are reopening in southern Europe, and this decision may have political consequences. The EU-funded MINPOL project has studied this phenomenon by shedding light on the concept of industrial citizenship, within the context of the reindustrialisation of European rural societies. The MINPOL project has focused on the relationships between mining policies, expectations of employment and grassroot politics in times of economic crisis. Based on an ethnographic case study located in southwest Spain, the project focused on mining revival from policy-making to its local impact on working-class families involved in the re-opening of a historical mine.
The MINPOL project sheds an innovative light on how economic and political order is produced, maintained but also challenged locally. Drawing upon the concept of “industrial citizenship”, which stresses the role of industry in the constitution of political subjects, on the work scene and beyond, this project has studied political subjectivities arising from hopes of re-industrialization in European rural societies. Beyond the specificities of the economic sector and of the geographic setting, this research contributes to the study of grassroots politics, emphasizing the prevalent importance of work while questioning how the economic policies in times of crisis transform the way (un)employment shapes daily life and subjectivation processes.
The project has been conducted along three paths of investigation.
1. It has studied Spanish mining policy, analysing the appropriation of economic doctrines from European to local scale, paying particular attention to the diffusion of policy narratives and devices.
2. Focusing on (former) miners’ families, the project has studied local impacts of mining revival policies. Moving from the industrial world and the work-scene to the surrounding villages, it has analysed the renewed importance of mining industry in production and reproduction practices, and its influence on social identities.
3. Investigating public spaces, associations, and collective action, it has scrutinized discrete processes of politicization that arise from ordinary sociality and (re)productive practices.
The MINPOL project sheds an innovative light on how economic and political order is produced, maintained but also challenged locally. Drawing upon the concept of “industrial citizenship”, which stresses the role of industry in the constitution of political subjects, on the work scene and beyond, this project has studied political subjectivities arising from hopes of re-industrialization in European rural societies. Beyond the specificities of the economic sector and of the geographic setting, this research contributes to the study of grassroots politics, emphasizing the prevalent importance of work while questioning how the economic policies in times of crisis transform the way (un)employment shapes daily life and subjectivation processes.
The project has been conducted along three paths of investigation.
1. It has studied Spanish mining policy, analysing the appropriation of economic doctrines from European to local scale, paying particular attention to the diffusion of policy narratives and devices.
2. Focusing on (former) miners’ families, the project has studied local impacts of mining revival policies. Moving from the industrial world and the work-scene to the surrounding villages, it has analysed the renewed importance of mining industry in production and reproduction practices, and its influence on social identities.
3. Investigating public spaces, associations, and collective action, it has scrutinized discrete processes of politicization that arise from ordinary sociality and (re)productive practices.
MINPOL has first focused on the set of measures taken by public authorities in order to support the recovery of the mining industry. Based on public documentation and interviews, the objective was to draw up a multi-scalar analysis of mining policy.
To achieve this objective, I have conducted an analysis of the construction of discourses of mining revival necessity in European, Spanish, and Andalusian public policy. More specifically, I have focused on the elaboration of three policy instruments related to mining revival: a) the Raw Material Initiative at the level of the European Union, leading to the current European Critical Raw Materials Act; b) the Roadmap for Sustainable Management of Mineral Raw Materials at the level of the Spanish government; and c) the Strategy for Sustainable Minning in Andalucia 2030. I have analysed around a hundred of institutional documents related to those policy instruments and conducted 18 interviews with several kind of actors related to mining policy (civil servants, members of associations and consultants related to the mining sector, heads and engineers of mining companies, unionists). I have also observed several public events related to mining revival in Andalusia, including the fourth edition of the Mining and Minerals Hall, an international trade fair that gathered a thousand of public and private actors of the mining sector and took place on October, 2022 in Seville.
Two papers based on this first objective will be published in 2024.
The second objective of MINPOL was to examine the renewed importance of mining industry in productive and reproductive practices, as well as its influence on social identities. From the industrial scene to the domestic one, the second objective was to analyse gendered and generational variations in the experience of mining industry revival.
To achieve this objective, the ethnography of the Mining Basin of Riotinto has led me to gather different kind of data:
- 50 interviews with: workers (heads, engineers, technicians and workers) of the Riotinto or surrounding mines, unionists, city council members of the Mining Basin, inhabitants of the Mining Basin.
- More than a hundred of ethnographic observations regarding: mode of production in the Riotinto mine, “corporate social responsibility” (CSR) activities, local celebrations and dozens of informal conversations with workers of the mine and inhabitants trying to make a living in the Mining Basin.
- Photo and video recordings of mining work, as well as daily life and local celebrations in the Mining basin.
The analysis of ethnographic data has led to the writing of two accepted articles in peer-reviewed journals that will be published between the end of 2023 and 2024.
The third objective of the research focused on grassroots evidence of ‘industrial citizenship’. The ethnography aimed to unravel discrete processes of politicization, defined as the emergence of collective belongings positioned according to perceived social antagonisms, studying how they are shaped by social trajectories, daily interactions and collective talk favoured by associative spaces.
Here again, different kind of qualitative data has been produced (in some cases, part of them were also useful to achieve objective 2):
- 41 interviews with workers of the mine living in the area and inhabitants of the Mining Basin of Riotinto;
- More than a hundred of ethnographic observations including, beyond the ones realised to achieve objective 2, informal conversations and events related to local politics, memory of the local fascist past, ecological issues and perception of the ecological impact of the mine.
- Photo and video recordings of mining ecological impact and of walks in the industrial landscape with inhabitants of the Mining Basin.
The analysis of the data, which is still in progress, has led to the presentation of one paper in a congress on “ecology and social classes”, which I have been invited to present for a special issue a central French journal of sociology.
To achieve this objective, I have conducted an analysis of the construction of discourses of mining revival necessity in European, Spanish, and Andalusian public policy. More specifically, I have focused on the elaboration of three policy instruments related to mining revival: a) the Raw Material Initiative at the level of the European Union, leading to the current European Critical Raw Materials Act; b) the Roadmap for Sustainable Management of Mineral Raw Materials at the level of the Spanish government; and c) the Strategy for Sustainable Minning in Andalucia 2030. I have analysed around a hundred of institutional documents related to those policy instruments and conducted 18 interviews with several kind of actors related to mining policy (civil servants, members of associations and consultants related to the mining sector, heads and engineers of mining companies, unionists). I have also observed several public events related to mining revival in Andalusia, including the fourth edition of the Mining and Minerals Hall, an international trade fair that gathered a thousand of public and private actors of the mining sector and took place on October, 2022 in Seville.
Two papers based on this first objective will be published in 2024.
The second objective of MINPOL was to examine the renewed importance of mining industry in productive and reproductive practices, as well as its influence on social identities. From the industrial scene to the domestic one, the second objective was to analyse gendered and generational variations in the experience of mining industry revival.
To achieve this objective, the ethnography of the Mining Basin of Riotinto has led me to gather different kind of data:
- 50 interviews with: workers (heads, engineers, technicians and workers) of the Riotinto or surrounding mines, unionists, city council members of the Mining Basin, inhabitants of the Mining Basin.
- More than a hundred of ethnographic observations regarding: mode of production in the Riotinto mine, “corporate social responsibility” (CSR) activities, local celebrations and dozens of informal conversations with workers of the mine and inhabitants trying to make a living in the Mining Basin.
- Photo and video recordings of mining work, as well as daily life and local celebrations in the Mining basin.
The analysis of ethnographic data has led to the writing of two accepted articles in peer-reviewed journals that will be published between the end of 2023 and 2024.
The third objective of the research focused on grassroots evidence of ‘industrial citizenship’. The ethnography aimed to unravel discrete processes of politicization, defined as the emergence of collective belongings positioned according to perceived social antagonisms, studying how they are shaped by social trajectories, daily interactions and collective talk favoured by associative spaces.
Here again, different kind of qualitative data has been produced (in some cases, part of them were also useful to achieve objective 2):
- 41 interviews with workers of the mine living in the area and inhabitants of the Mining Basin of Riotinto;
- More than a hundred of ethnographic observations including, beyond the ones realised to achieve objective 2, informal conversations and events related to local politics, memory of the local fascist past, ecological issues and perception of the ecological impact of the mine.
- Photo and video recordings of mining ecological impact and of walks in the industrial landscape with inhabitants of the Mining Basin.
The analysis of the data, which is still in progress, has led to the presentation of one paper in a congress on “ecology and social classes”, which I have been invited to present for a special issue a central French journal of sociology.
The rich fieldwork that has been conducted has given the possibility to link the understanding of mining renewal policy, modes of production (through direct observation of mining work), and socio-political life in the villages and domestic spaces. The data coming from the fieldwork shed an original and important light on current pressing issues related to ecological crisis and grassroot politics. The four publications in process and the other planned articles to be submitted in the coming months will contribute to make these conclusions available for a large academic audience (French, Spanish and English-speaking; in anthropology, political science, and environmental humanities) thanks to the diversity of the targeted journals – for instance Anthropological Quaterly; The Review of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Studies; Culture & Conflits, Ecologie & Politique; Etnográfica; Antipode.
The communication of the conclusions to a wider audience could contribute to enhance people’s reflexivity on the economic and social implications of sticking to a productivist approach of energy transition, which implies a growing extraction of raw materials.
The communication of the conclusions to a wider audience could contribute to enhance people’s reflexivity on the economic and social implications of sticking to a productivist approach of energy transition, which implies a growing extraction of raw materials.