Abstract
This paper discusses the potentialities of the category of ‘place’ within social sciences studies on environmental conflicts and development. The analysis is grounded on the effects produced by two mega-development projects, i.e., coal mining operated by Vale S.A. in Moatize (Mozambique), and niobium extraction operated by Companhia Brasileira de Metalurgia e Mineração in Araxá (Brazil). This article aims at: i) correlating concepts and categories of place, territory, and landscape; ii) tracing processes of construction of places through mining activities; iii) presenting other forms of inhabiting places that confront the logic of mining activities. For such, the category of place is brought into dialog with the discussions presented by the anthropology of nature and the post-structural approach. The findings indicate that, in addition to the production of minable places through processes of reduction and enclosure, processes of disidentification are produced by the multiplicity of practices through which actors explore other manners of inhabiting a place, whether by coexisting or resisting the logic of mining activities.
Keywords:
place; mining; Moatize; Araxá