Social construction of rural development: knowledge, agency and power in mining conflict zones

Abstract

This essay examines how three elements of rural development—knowledge, agency, and power—are reconfigured by the central role of a mining project in the Río Blanco community of Ecuador. To this end, the essay employs the notion of the social construction of rural development to study the contradictions generated within society by the implementation of development models. These models involve actors, knowledge, and space, all of which are shaped by interests and visions of social change. This notion is complemented by the concept of the knowledge interface, which encompasses ways of life, social fields, and levels of organization. The essay concludes that the central role of large-scale mining projects, backed by state power, reconfigures elements of rural development such as knowledge, human agency, and power. This reconfiguration leads to social fragmentation but also to the emergence of resistance organizations within communities to confront mining activity at the local level, protecting the environment and generating economic alternatives for families. Highlights include the recovery of the idea of ​​community (human agency), the appreciation of the socio-material conditions of the territory, and the exercise of power in territorial decision-making.