Global order, local disorder: metal mining, accumulation by dispossession and conflict in the north of the province of Neuquén, Argentina (1998-2017)

Abstract

Operating as vectors of the global order, the big transnational corporation and its strategies of accumulation by dispossession disrupt the local order by generating various conflicts derived from the coexistence of antagonistic rationalities regarding the use of the territory. In light of these assumptions, the article analyzes the resurgence of metal mining in the north of the Province of Neuquén (Argentina) during the period 1998-2017 by using the categories proposed by the literature. The results show that the expropriation dynamics of the global firm have produced an important local disorder, which is reflected in the new legal and territorial enclosures, the privatization of land, subsoil and resources, the threat to pre-capitalist forms of production, the economic plundering, the restructuring of the local socio-productive framework, the ecological expropriation, and the subjugation of human rights.