Natural Resources, Cultures, and Collisions:

The CEU Department of Environmental Sciences and Policy cordially invites you to
Natural Resources, Cultures, and Collisions:
Socio-Environmental and Governance Lessons from Andean Mining
A public seminar by
Vladimir R. Gil Ramón
Catholic University, Peru
The Earth Institute at Columbia University, USA
Wednesday, 25 March, 5:30 p.m. Popper Room, Nádor u. 9
The recent world-wide mining frontier expansion, fueled by the urbanization of China, has created conflictive
encounters between governments and companies against remote marginalized populations. Although mining is
Wednesday, 25 March, 5:30 p.m. Room 203,
generally presented as beneficial for national development, the number of conflicts are rising.
Monument Building 2nd floor, Nádor u. 9
This presentation contributes to understandings of the causes of mining
conflicts through evidence-based information, supporting scientifically
informed public policies as well as debates on sub-national mining
impacts and their governance challenges. The seminar is based on longterm multi-sited ethnographic field work comparing transnational
Andean mining, which works to unveil the causes of conflicts based on
local contests for definitions of development and environmental risks.
The results illustrate a particularized version of events that are unfolding
globally, in an era when national governments concede spheres of their
sovereignty to corporate networks and NGOs, with an unexpected governance outcome: the possibility of
vulnerable populations to find ways to improve their articulation in the nation, while also contesting national
institutions and re-appropriating discourses of development and its environmental impact.
Enrique Castro-Mendivil (Reuters)
Dr. Vladimir Gil Ramón is a faculty member at the Environmental Development Master´s Program and the
Department of Social Sciences at the Catholic University of Peru, and an affiliated Research Scientist at the Earth
Institute Center for Environmental Sustainability at Columbia University. He is currently a CEU/HESP Visiting
Research fellow, hosted by DESP. His research focuses on socio-environmental challenges, including mining impacts
and adaptation to climate change. He has lead scientific consortiums examining the impact of climate change in
the Andes, with the support of the IDB and UNEP. His most recent publications, including co-authorships,
include Mining Landing: Culture, Conflict, Negotiations and Lessons for Development (IEP), Adaptation to Climate
Change (Cambridge University Press), Less Carbon Development (World Bank), as well as articles at journals such
as Climate and Development, Anthropological Quarterly, Visual Anthropology, and Bulletin of the World Health
Organization. His forthcoming publications include a book on Andean mining conflicts and governance at The
University of Arizona Press, and a meta-analysis of Andean ecology research at Oxford University Press.
Introduction by Dr. Laszlo Pinter
Professor, Department of Environmental Sciences and Policy, and Senior Fellow, International Institute for Sustainable Development
RSVP to [email protected]