TY - JOUR
T1 - Trading time and space: Grassroots negotiations in a Brazilian mining district
AU - De Souza Santos, Andreza
PY - 2019/5/15
Y1 - 2019/5/15
N2 - Participatory governance has been used to direct public budget and policy priorities. Grassroots politics also offers democratic pathways for negotiations over permits for businesses such as mining. In this paper, I focus on notions of time in policy-meetings between a mining company, the affected community in the district of Miguel Burnier, Brazil, and mediators between them – members of a municipal council for cultural heritage. I used ethnographic data to investigate whether participatory councils could abridge temporalities and offer a compromise. While the company offered improvements in quality of life in an uncertain future and the council needed to preserve local cultural heritage, residents suffered from pressing problems in the present: depopulation, pollution, and unemployment. My findings show that participation could not solve residents’ socio-economic problems efficiently, for these same problems affected their ability to voice concerns and wait for compensations. Relaxing immediate economic pressures improves the process of participation.
AB - Participatory governance has been used to direct public budget and policy priorities. Grassroots politics also offers democratic pathways for negotiations over permits for businesses such as mining. In this paper, I focus on notions of time in policy-meetings between a mining company, the affected community in the district of Miguel Burnier, Brazil, and mediators between them – members of a municipal council for cultural heritage. I used ethnographic data to investigate whether participatory councils could abridge temporalities and offer a compromise. While the company offered improvements in quality of life in an uncertain future and the council needed to preserve local cultural heritage, residents suffered from pressing problems in the present: depopulation, pollution, and unemployment. My findings show that participation could not solve residents’ socio-economic problems efficiently, for these same problems affected their ability to voice concerns and wait for compensations. Relaxing immediate economic pressures improves the process of participation.
U2 - 0.1177/1466138119848
DO - 0.1177/1466138119848
M3 - Article
VL - 22
JO - Ethnography
JF - Ethnography
IS - 2
ER -