Bibliographic citations
Lopez, A., (2023). Habitar cuerpos y territorios enfermos: Políticas sociotécnicas frente a la problemática de salud ambiental en Espinar [Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú]. http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12404/26108
Lopez, A., Habitar cuerpos y territorios enfermos: Políticas sociotécnicas frente a la problemática de salud ambiental en Espinar []. PE: Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú; 2023. http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12404/26108
@mastersthesis{sunedu/3574740,
title = "Habitar cuerpos y territorios enfermos: Políticas sociotécnicas frente a la problemática de salud ambiental en Espinar",
author = "Lopez Minchan, Ana Paula",
publisher = "Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú",
year = "2023"
}
In recent decades, the environmental issue in large-scale mining contexts has experienced a remarkable expansion through collective action and environmental conflicts. In this process, two critical axes of controversy stand out: the definition of mining impacts on the environment and the connection between these impacts and the human health of the population. In order to address these controversies, socio-technical policies are socially produced, such as participatory environmental monitoring, specialized studies on human health, judicial processes, human health care plans, among others. However, despite these efforts, scenarios of environmental suffering persist at the local level. This study focuses on analyzing the construction of environmental health problems and the design and evolution of socio-technical policies, using the Espinar mining district as a case study. In this territory, old mining, characterized by its toxic legacies and practices of violence and dispossession of the population, converge with new mining, which is characterized by the growing use of environmental regulatory frameworks and technical instruments for environmental management. These circumstances, combined with the community's exceptional capacity for social mobilization, provide an opportunity to comprehend the evolution of environmental health concerns, as well the socio-technical policies devised to ameliorate them, and the role played by collective action in these processes. Thus, the objective of this research is to conduct a historical analysis of the development of socio-technical policies and to grasp their effectiveness in addressing environmental health problems in Espinar. To answer this question, the research followed a qualitative methodological design that included semi-structured interviews with government officials, private company representatives, NGO members, social leaders and local inhabitants. In addition, an extensive review of technical documents such as environmental monitoring reports, causality studies and human health care plans was carried out. The results of the research show, firstly, that in Espinar environmental problems have intensified in parallel to mining expansion, leading to the emergence and discovery of new environmental issues that are intricately tied to human health under an umbrella of technical uncertainties. Secondly, socio-technical policies of environmental and health monitoring, production of specialized knowledge on heavy metals and causality, and plans for human health care, emerge and develop on the basis of collective action. These processes are fraught with socio-technical disputes and controversies, but also include temporary agreements. Thirdly, it is concluded that social action drives the creation of socio-technical policies, leading to changes in environmental governance, which, despite their advances, do not respond effectively to local environmental suffering, due to an absence of candid acknowledgment of scientific uncertainties and social action remains fragmented.
This item is licensed under a Creative Commons License