CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2008
| Author | Orian, Elad |
|---|---|
| Title | The Transfer of Environmental Technology as a Tool for Empowering Communities in Conflict; the case of Participatory Water Monitoring in Cajamarca, Peru |
| Summary | The last decades have seen a growing trend towards integrating “soft” or social technology in the form of participatory practices into the praxis of development as a means to making it more sustainable and empowering. This study attempts to integrate this branch of development theory into the theory of ecological modernisation; the conceptual framework which views technological advancement as the means to generate sustainable development. Critically integrating these two frameworks, this study will examine the introduction of a Participatory Water Monitoring Schemes (PWMS), as a vehicle for community empowerment and conflict resolution in a development context. The case study chosen for the investigation is that of the region of Cajamarca in northern Peru, where a very large mining operation is at the centre of a social-environmental conflict over, among other issues, water quality and quantity. Four different PWMS that were introduced to the region are surveyed and their history, strengths and weaknesses are discussed. The study then offers three wider reflections on the relationship between PWMS, empowerment and state and private actors. The first is concerned with causal relationships between empowerment and PWMS, suggesting that in many ways PWMS are not the engines of empowerment but the result of it, highlighting the important empowerment effects of conflictual social mobilisation. The second reflection points to the gap between the way public and private institutions reacted to public pressure in Cajamarca and suggests that the private multinational company was not only quicker to respond but did so in a more comprehensive way. Lastly the study points at the gap between the organisational culture of the mine and that of the people living around it as one of the reasons why the conflict is still on-going and the PWMS not delivering on their conflict resolution and empowerment promises. |
| Supervisor | Bebbington, Anthony |
| Department | Environment Sciences and Policy MSc |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2008/orian_elad.pdf |
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