Technologies of mining production: space, discourse, new materialities, and media

My dissertation examines how technologies are developed to either sustain or resist the process of mining production in the Chilean Andes. Through the study of the mining company Los Pelambres, I make visible knowledge, skills, and practices that take place in a zone of socio-environmental conflict. In the dissertation, I demonstrate how the mining activity exceeds the zone of extractive operations of a company, studying different sites, specifically the local communities of the Choapa Valley, the zone of extraction inside mine Los Pelambres, the museums operated or funded by the company, and local and national media outlets. I approach these sites as mediums, where knowledge and meaning-making processes transform materialities and discourses. I study the political, extractive, and popular technologies of mining, and demonstrate how even some seemingly anti-technological practices of resistance contain technical dimensions. To articulate the nuances and richness of the technological process of mineral extraction, I use multi-sited ethnography, critical ethnography, performance, and critical discourse analysis as complementary methodologies and theories, and I use them for their politics and application in archival research and fieldwork. Through these methodologies, I work toward re-drawing boundaries of mining production and the visualization of the fluidity of the mining system in itself.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Communications and Media

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2015

Author dc:creator

• Palma Millanao, Karla

Contributors dc:contributor

• McCarthy, Cameron R.
• McCarthy, Cameron
• Chan, Anita
• Valdivia, Angharad
• Denzin, Norman K.

• Mining
• Technologies
• The Andes
• Space
• Mining Museums
• Sustainable Development
• Chile

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2015 Karla Palma Millanao

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/88292

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/88292