IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v111y2014icp50-57.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Gold mining on Mayan-Mam territory: Social unravelling, discord and distress in the Western highlands of Guatemala

Author

Listed:
  • Caxaj, C. Susana
  • Berman, Helene
  • Varcoe, Colleen
  • Ray, Susan L.
  • Restoulec, Jean-Paul

Abstract

This article examines the influence of a large-scale mining operation on the health of the community of San Miguel Ixtahuacán, Guatemala. An anti-colonial narrative approach informed by participatory action research principles was employed. Data collection included focus groups and one-on-one interviews from August to November of 2011. Over this period, we interviewed 15 Mam Mayan men and 41 women (n = 56) between the ages of 18 and 64 including health care workers, educators, spiritual leaders, agricultural workers and previous mine employees from 13 villages within the municipality. Participants' accounts pointed to community health experiences of social unravelling characterized by overlapping narratives of a climate of fear and discord and embodied expressions of distress. These findings reveal the interconnected mechanisms by which local mining operations influenced the health of the community, specifically, by introducing new threats to the safety and mental wellbeing of local residents.

Suggested Citation

  • Caxaj, C. Susana & Berman, Helene & Varcoe, Colleen & Ray, Susan L. & Restoulec, Jean-Paul, 2014. "Gold mining on Mayan-Mam territory: Social unravelling, discord and distress in the Western highlands of Guatemala," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 50-57.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:111:y:2014:i:c:p:50-57
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2014.03.036
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953614002159
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2014.03.036?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gelkopf, Marc & Berger, Rony & Bleich, Avraham & Silver, Roxane Cohen, 2012. "Protective factors and predictors of vulnerability to chronic stress: A comparative study of 4 communities after 7 years of continuous rocket fire," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 74(5), pages 757-766.
    2. Pedersen, Duncan & Tremblay, Jacques & Errázuriz, Consuelo & Gamarra, Jeffrey, 2008. "The sequelae of political violence: Assessing trauma, suffering and dislocation in the Peruvian highlands," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 67(2), pages 205-217, July.
    3. Khanlou, N. & Peter, E., 2005. "Participatory action research: considerations for ethical review," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 60(10), pages 2333-2340, May.
    4. Gilberthorpe, Emma & Banks, Glenn, 2012. "Development on whose terms?: CSR discourse and social realities in Papua New Guinea's extractive industries sector," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 185-193.
    5. Todd Gordon & Jeffery Webber, 2008. "Imperialism and Resistance: Canadian mining companies in Latin America," Third World Quarterly, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(1), pages 63-87.
    6. Hobfoll, Stevan E. & Mancini, Anthony D. & Hall, Brian J. & Canetti, Daphna & Bonanno, George A., 2011. "The limits of resilience: Distress following chronic political violence among Palestinians," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 72(8), pages 1400-1408, April.
    7. Slack, Keith, 2012. "Mission impossible?: Adopting a CSR-based business model for extractive industries in developing countries," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 179-184.
    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. Chester, Winston C. & Alam, Bhuiyan Monwar & Haase, Dwight, 2016. "“One slowly loses everything”: Development and debt in San Antonio Aguas Calientes," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 4(C), pages 24-29.

    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. Van Alstine, James & Barkemeyer, Ralf, 2014. "Business and development: Changing discourses in the extractive industries," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 4-16.
    2. Frederiksen, Tomas, 2018. "Corporate social responsibility, risk and development in the mining industry," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 495-505.
    3. Alex Osei-Kojo & Nathan Andrews, 2020. "A developmental paradox? The “dark forces” against corporate social responsibility in Ghana’s extractive industry," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 1051-1071, February.
    4. Veldhuizen, Caroline & Desouza, Kevin C. & Bandara, Wasana & Chang, Artemis, 2022. "How much is not enough: Corporate social responsibility and beyond in the resources sector," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    5. Sharon McLennan & Glenn Banks, 2019. "Reversing the lens: Why corporate social responsibility is not community development," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 26(1), pages 117-126, January.
    6. Wilson, Sigismond A., 2022. "Measuring the effectiveness of corporate social responsibility initiatives in diamond mining areas of Sierra Leone," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    7. Fordham, Anne Elizabeth & Robinson, Guy M. & Blackwell, Boyd Dirk, 2017. "Corporate social responsibility in resource companies – Opportunities for developing positive benefits and lasting legacies," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 366-376.
    8. Barber, Brian K. & McNeely, Clea & Olsen, Joseph A. & Belli, Robert F. & Doty, Samuel Benjamin, 2016. "Long-term exposure to political violence: The particular injury of persistent humiliation," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 156(C), pages 154-166.
    9. Lyons, Margaret & Bartlett, Jennifer & McDonald, Paula, 2016. "Corporate social responsibility in junior and mid-tier resources companies operating in developing nations – beyond the public relations offensive," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 204-213.
    10. Veronica Devenin & Constanza Bianchi, 2018. "Soccer fields? What for? Effectiveness of corporate social responsibility initiatives in the mining industry," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 25(5), pages 866-879, September.
    11. Hildegunn Mellesmo Aslaksen & Clare Hildebrandt & Hans Chr. Garmann Johnsen, 2021. "The long-term transformation of the concept of CSR: towards a more comprehensive emphasis on sustainability," International Journal of Corporate Social Responsibility, Springer, vol. 6(1), pages 1-14, December.
    12. Cesar Ivan Aviles Gonzalez & Doris Marina Cerchiaro Fernandez & Martha Esther Guerra Munoz & Robert Romero Ramirez & Yessika Madelaine Abarca Arias & Maria Veronica Brasesco & Gian Mario Migliaccio & , 2024. "Mental Health Professionals’ Perception of Respect for Human Rights and Organizational Well-Being in Three Countries of South America," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 21(2), pages 1-12, February.
    13. Deanna Kemp & John R. Owen, 2022. "Corporate social irresponsibility, hostile organisations and global resource extraction," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(5), pages 1816-1824, September.
    14. Tom Hendriks & Tobi Graafsma & Aabidien Hassankhan & Ernst Bohlmeijer & Joop de Jong, 2018. "Strengths and virtues and the development of resilience: A qualitative study in Suriname during a time of economic crisis," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 64(2), pages 180-188, March.
    15. Nicholas A. Bainton & Glenn Banks, 2018. "Land and access: A framework for analysing mining, migration and development in Melanesia," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(5), pages 450-460, September.
    16. Elisa Giuliani, 2016. "Human Rights and Corporate Social Responsibility in Developing Countries’ Industrial Clusters," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 133(1), pages 39-54, January.
    17. Blesia, Jhon Urasti & Dixon, Keith & Lord, Beverley Rae, 2023. "Indigenous experiences and perspectives on a mining corporation's community relations and development activities," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    18. Uduji, Joseph Ikechukwu & Okolo-Obasi, Elda Nduka & Asongu, Simplice A., 2021. "Oil extraction in Nigeria's Ogoniland: The role of corporate social responsibility in averting a resurgence of violence," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    19. Tomas Frederiksen, 2016. "Corporate social responsibility and political settlements in the mining sector in Ghana, Zambia and Peru," Global Development Institute Working Paper Series esid-074-16, GDI, The University of Manchester.
    20. Joseph I. Uduji & Elda N. Okolo-Obasi, 2023. "Ecotourism for Transformative and Youth Development in sub-Saharan Africa: the Role of Corporate Social Responsibility in Nigeria’s Oil Host Communities," Working Papers of the African Governance and Development Institute. 23/036, African Governance and Development Institute..

    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:eee:socmed:v:111:y:2014:i:c:p:50-57. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    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.