Business and Human Rights: Social Movements Responses to Extractivism in Chile

The process of globalisation in the last three decades has opened up, on the one hand, possibilities to expand business networks and opportunities and, on the other, opportunities and incentives for social movements to denounce atrocities and to claim historical rights. The openness of opportunities to expand business networks is a response to liberal economic policies that were introduced in over 90 countries in the early 1990s aiming to increase the investment of the extractive sector in their economies (Bridge, 2004). This openness has affected the whole Latin American region, but most specifically the Andean region; an area where the extraction of natural resources represents 87.4 per cent of the total exports (ECLAC, 2014). With this growth in investment it also came a growth in social mobilisation (Bebbington, 2012). This paper will explore the interaction between these two processes; the increasing in investment in extractivism and the increasing development of social movements by exploring the causes of social movements against extractivism. The study of social movements and extractivism is central to understand the historical and contemporary political economy of Latin America. And, despite of that importance the literature on social movements in the context of extractive industries in Latin America is not abundant. To fill this gap, I analyse the case of Chile and adapt the concept of social movement into to the specific context of extractivism in the country. I conclude that the economic openness, the political constitutional or legal framework changes and the systems generated by local, national or international networks are key factors that influence the development of social movements in the Chile. REFERENCES: Bebbington, Anthony (2012), Social conflict, economic development and the extractive industry: evidence from South America, Routledge. Bridge, G. (2004). Mapping the bonanza: Geographies of mining investment in an era of neoliberal reform. The Professional Geographer, 56(3), 406–421. ECLAC (2014), Statistical Yearbook for Latin America and the Caribbean 2013. ECLAC.