How Does Development Mean? Attitudes toward Mining and the Social Meaning of Development in Guatemala
by Michael L. Dougherty
The ways that the concept of development comes to mean refract individual value sets and map onto Guatemalan host-community residents’ attitudes toward mining. Economically oriented residents tend to support mining while those who prioritize public health and environmental advocacy tend to oppose it. Individuals who trust institutions of the state tend to support mining, while individuals who perceive these issues through the lens of their religious faith tend to oppose it. Concerns around public health are especially salient. Focusing on individual-level decision making rather than community-level action distinguishes between rationale and decision, thus highlighting the variegated social meanings underlying superficially similar attitudes. Mining attitudes and their rationales are heterogeneous and vary in intensity.
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