Mirja’s lecture explores decision-making on mining projects. Combining high hydrosocial stakes with a strongly unequal playing field for different interest parties, decision-making on the extraction of metals and minerals offers a window into key questions for the pursuit of environmental justice. Who is recognized as a political subject with voice and authority in these processes? Whose/which understandings of hydrosocial interactions are endorsed or dismissed? And how do the contexts into which they are embedded shape the actions of seemingly powerful decision-makers? By looking at these questions based on field research conducted in Mongolia, the lecture demonstrates how a misrecognition of ontological difference can shape distributive and procedural outcomes and complicates simplistic narratives about the roles of “the state” vs. “the community” in water and mining conflicts.
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0.5 ECTS credits after participation to more than 80% of the sessions and engagement with assigned readings