The impacts of mining on livelihoods in the Andes: A critical overview

This review article synthesizes research findings which demonstrate that mining in the Andes is transforming local livelihoods by changing water quality and quantity and land tenure practices upon which traditional livelihoods depend, as well as by generating new employment opportunities in mining communities. I argue that research on livelihood change in Andean mining communities would be enriched by 1) a deeper attendance to the gendered, raced, and classed nature of these changes and 2) the disaggregation of different mining management regimes (e.g. state-run, privately-run, cooperative-run) to allow for comparisons of the livelihood impacts between them.