IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jlands/v7y2018i2p42-d139368.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Dirty Water, Muddied Politics: Hybridisation of Local and National Opposition to Kumtor Mine, Kyrgyzstan

Author

Listed:
  • Joseph Horrocks-Taylor

    (School of Geography, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3QY, UK)

Abstract

From a Mongolian ‘super mine’ to China’s One Belt One Road, rapid infrastructural development is reforging Central Asia as an economic pivot of the future. Such development offers enticing economic benefits, but threatens fragile environments and local livelihoods. Due to the weakness of the state, the emphasis will be on citizens to hold developers accountable to their social and environmental pledges. Reports of political elites influencing the demands of popular protests call into question the ability of citizens to fulfil this function. This paper examines protest authenticity in Kyrgyzstan, focusing on an environmental social movement against Kumtor gold mine. We trace the emergence and evolution of the social movement, identifying the flexible discursive and scalar strategies it uses to achieve emphasis of the local level and relevance on the national scale. The discussion focuses on how national political saliency may incentivise elite involvement with social movements. This involvement can mask the local demands of the social movement, fixing the environmental problem as a national issue. It is crucial to understand the scalar dynamics of elite-protest interaction if Central Asian civil society is to hold future infrastructural developments to account.

Suggested Citation

  • Joseph Horrocks-Taylor, 2018. "Dirty Water, Muddied Politics: Hybridisation of Local and National Opposition to Kumtor Mine, Kyrgyzstan," Land, MDPI, vol. 7(2), pages 1-18, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:7:y:2018:i:2:p:42-:d:139368
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/7/2/42/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/7/2/42/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dalton, Russell & Van Sickle, Alix & Weldon, Steven, 2010. "The Individual–Institutional Nexus of Protest Behaviour," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 40(1), pages 51-73, January.
    2. Bebbington, Anthony & Humphreys Bebbington, Denise & Bury, Jeffrey & Lingan, Jeannet & Muñoz, Juan Pablo & Scurrah, Martin, 2008. "Mining and Social Movements: Struggles Over Livelihood and Rural Territorial Development in the Andes," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 36(12), pages 2888-2905, December.
    3. Asel Murzakulova & John Schoeberlein, 2009. "The Invention of Legitimacy: Struggles in Kyrgyzstan to Craft an Effective Nation-State Ideology," Europe-Asia Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 61(7), pages 1229-1248.
    4. Ganbold, Misheelt & Ali, Saleem H., 2017. "The peril and promise of resource nationalism: A case analysis of Mongolia's mining development," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 1-11.
    5. Troy Sternberg & Ariell Ahearn & Fiona McConnell, 2017. "Central Asian ‘Characteristics’ on China’s New Silk Road: The Role of Landscape and the Politics of Infrastructure," Land, MDPI, vol. 6(3), pages 1-16, August.
    6. Cem Iskender Aydin & Begum Ozkaynak & Beatriz Rodríguez-Labajos & Taylan Yenilmez, 2017. "Network effects in environmental justice struggles: An investigation of conflicts between mining companies and civil society organizations from a network perspective," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(7), pages 1-20, July.
    7. Anthony Bebbington & Jeffrey Bury & Denise Humphreys Bebbington & Jeannet Lingan & Juan Pablo Muñoz & Martin Scurrah, 2008. "Mining and social movements: struggles over Mining and social movements: struggles over livelihood and rural territorial development in the Andes," Global Development Institute Working Paper Series 3308, GDI, The University of Manchester.
    8. Elmira Satybaldieva, 2015. "Political Capital, Everyday Politics and Moral Obligations: Understanding the Political Strategies of Various Elites and the Poor in Kyrgyzstan," Europe-Asia Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 67(3), pages 370-387, March.
    9. Yuldashev, Farhod & Sahin, Bahadir, 2016. "The political economy of mineral resource use: The case of Kyrgyzstan," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 266-272.
    10. Vela-Almeida, Diana & Kolinjivadi, Vijay & Kosoy, Nicolas, 2018. "The building of mining discourses and the politics of scale in Ecuador," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 188-198.
    11. Urkidi, Leire, 2010. "A glocal environmental movement against gold mining: Pascua-Lama in Chile," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(2), pages 219-227, December.
    12. Joan Martínez Alier, 2001. "Environmental Conflicts, Environmental Justice, and Valuation," UHE Working papers 2001_03, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Departament d'Economia i Història Econòmica, Unitat d'Història Econòmica.
    13. Bebbington, Anthony, 1999. "Capitals and Capabilities: A Framework for Analyzing Peasant Viability, Rural Livelihoods and Poverty," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 27(12), pages 2021-2044, December.
    14. Leena Suopajärvi & Thomas Ejdemo & Elena Klyuchnikova & Elena Korchak & Vigdis Nygaard & Gregory A. Poelzer, 2017. "Social impacts of the “glocal” mining business: case studies from Northern Europe," Mineral Economics, Springer;Raw Materials Group (RMG);Luleå University of Technology, vol. 30(1), pages 31-39, April.
    15. Paul Domjan & Matt Stone, 2010. "A Comparative Study of Resource Nationalism in Russia and Kazakhstan 2004–2008," Europe-Asia Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 62(1), pages 35-62.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Sternberg, Troy & Tchoroev, Almaz & Toktomushev, Kemel, 2023. "The role of mining in Kyrgyzstan's social acceptance of protest," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 85(PA).
    2. Dimitrios Zikos, 2020. "Revisiting the Role of Institutions in Transformative Contexts: Institutional Change and Conflicts," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-20, October.
    3. Troy Sternberg & Jerome R. Mayaud & Ariell Ahearn, 2022. "Herd It in the Gobi: Deserting Pastoralism?," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-23, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Vela-Almeida, Diana & Kolinjivadi, Vijay & Kosoy, Nicolas, 2018. "The building of mining discourses and the politics of scale in Ecuador," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 188-198.
    2. Cem Iskender Aydin & Begum Ozkaynak & Beatriz Rodríguez-Labajos & Taylan Yenilmez, 2017. "Network effects in environmental justice struggles: An investigation of conflicts between mining companies and civil society organizations from a network perspective," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(7), pages 1-20, July.
    3. Paúl Cisneros, 2020. "A Comparative Study of the Introduction of Restrictions to Large‐Scale Mining in Four Latin American Countries," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 37(5), pages 687-712, September.
    4. Haslam, Paul Alexander, 2021. "The micro-politics of corporate responsibility: How companies shape protest in communities affected by mining," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    5. Haslam, Paul Alexander & Ary Tanimoune, Nasser, 2016. "The Determinants of Social Conflict in the Latin American Mining Sector: New Evidence with Quantitative Data," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 401-419.
    6. Dueholm Rasch, Elisabet, 2019. "Subsoil mediations: Strategies of contention at the grassroots and the extraction of subsoil resources," GLOCON Working Paper Series 11, Freie Universität Berlin, Junior Research Group "Global Change – Local Conflicts?" (GLOCON).
    7. Nathaly M. Rivera, 2020. "Is Mining an Environmental Disamenity? Evidence from Resource Extraction Site Openings," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 75(3), pages 485-528, March.
    8. Abdul–Wadood Moomen & Ashraf Dewan, 2017. "Probing the Perspectives of Stakeholder Engagement and Resistance Against Large‐Scale Surface Mining in Developing Countries," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 24(2), pages 85-95, March.
    9. Karolien van Teijlingen & Barbara Hogenboom, 2016. "Debating Alternative Development at the Mining Frontier: Buen Vivir and the Conflict around El Mirador Mine in Ecuador," Journal of Developing Societies, , vol. 32(4), pages 382-420, December.
    10. Kotsadam, Andreas & Tolonen, Anja, 2016. "African Mining, Gender, and Local Employment," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 325-339.
    11. Matthew Himley, 2014. "Monitoring the Impacts of Extraction: Science and Participation in the Governance of Mining in Peru," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 46(5), pages 1069-1087, May.
    12. Marin-Burgos, Victoria & Clancy, Joy S. & Lovett, Jon C., 2015. "Contesting legitimacy of voluntary sustainability certification schemes: Valuation languages and power asymmetries in the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil in Colombia," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 303-313.
    13. Moomen, Abdul–Wadood & Dewan, Ashraf, 2016. "Analysis of spatial interactions between the Shea industry and mining sector activities in the emerging north-west gold province of Ghana," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 104-111.
    14. Matías Calderón-Seguel & Manuel Prieto & Oliver Meseguer-Ruiz & Freddy Viñales & Paulina Hidalgo & Elías Esper, 2021. "Mining, Urban Growth, and Agrarian Changes in the Atacama Desert: The Case of the Calama Oasis in Northern Chile," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-21, November.
    15. Cesar Saenz, 2019. "A social conflict diagnostic tool for application in the mining industry: A case study in Peru," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 26(3), pages 690-700, May.
    16. Korah, Prosper Issahaku & Nunbogu, Abraham Marshall & Cobbinah, Patrick Brandful & Akanbang, Bernard Afiik Akanpabadai, 2019. "Analysis of livelihood issues in resettlement mining communities in Ghana," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 1-1.
    17. Reeder, Bryce W. & Arce, Moises & Siefkas, Adrian, 2022. "Environmental justice organizations and the diffusion of conflicts over mining in Latin America," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    18. Larsen, Rasmus Kløcker & Mamosso, Christiane Alzouma, 2014. "Aid with Blinkers: Environmental Governance of Uranium Mining in Niger," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 62-76.
    19. Hinojosa, Leonith & Mzoughi, Naoufel & Napoléone, Claude & Guerrero Villegas, Wilma, 2019. "Does higher place difficulty predict increased attachment? The moderating role of identity," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 165(C), pages 1-1.
    20. AvcI, Duygu & Adaman, Fikret & Özkaynak, Begüm, 2010. "Valuation languages in environmental conflicts: How stakeholders oppose or support gold mining at Mount Ida, Turkey," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(2), pages 228-238, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:7:y:2018:i:2:p:42-:d:139368. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.