Abstract
Until recently, the Peruvian government to a great extent has given corporations the responsibility for resolving the increasing number of conflicts with local communities in mining localities. In the literature on political and economic reforms, mobilization, and democratic influence, few studies have addressed the role of corporations in relation to those processes. This study contributes an analysis of how corporate-community relations affect communities' ability to mobilize and influence mining projects. The article is based on two case studies in which local communities pursued different demands and analyzes how corporations used various strategies to deal with demands and protests. The empirical analysis demonstrates that local communities can achieve influence by opposing projects as well as by collaborating with corporations. However, these forms of mobilization have different impacts on the collective identities and organizational structures that are essential to the scope of democratic influence for those groups.
Keywords
Bolivia, institutional competition, lake management, political ecology, pollution, scientific controversies
