A great deal has been written about environmental politics, neoliberalism, political mobilization, and resource extraction in South America. In Unearthing Conflict, Fabiana Li synthesizes these themes while providing a detailed history of mining in Peru’s central highlands. Li centers her discussion on the conflicts associated with mining and how transformations in mining technologies and practices shape collective knowledge about nature. In doing so, she suggests that conflicts are related to a hegemonic economic structure that emphasizes resource extraction as a means of progress and development. Li does a commendable job of integrating relevant literature and making connections to previous scholarship while writing in a manner that is accessible to a broad audience.
Fieldwork for Unearthing Conflict took place in Peru’s central highlands. It was multi-sited with most of the research having been conducted in La Oroya and Cajamarca. While a couple of maps are provided in the text, a...
