One World, Many Ethics. The Politics of Mining and Indigenous Peoples in Atacama, Chile

Abstract

This dissertation investigates the impacts of the mining economy on the lives of indigenous peoples in the city of Calama and Atacameno villages in the Loa River basin in northern Chile. It explores overlapping ethical systems that shape views of fairness and the environment: indigenous communities and mining corporation's views. The central inquiry revolves around reaching an understanding of how different underlying ethical systems and interrelated ideologies influence political decisions regarding what communities and lives will be allowed to persist and which will have to perish. This relationship between economics, politics, and morality will advance knowledge of the status of corporation-community relations and identify the main obstacles to sustainable positive relations in the future.