Megaproyectos y comunidadimpacto de un proyecto minero-eléctrico a gran escala desde una perspectiva sociológica

Abstract

This thesis explores the social, economic and urban transformation patterns in a town affected by open pit mine in the seventies, while also looking at the more theoretical questions about social impact of both large scale projects or megaprojects and rapid urban growth processes in a context of global capitalism. Such issues as social cohesion, social capital in the community affected, migration, social disruption, economic structure and urban morphology changes and early retirement phenomenon in the post-mining period have been addressed by mean a mixed methods research design. The results allow seeing that the apparently economic boom experienced it actually consisted of a rapid urban growth in the vicinity of the power station, but in contrast, the region as a whole, i.e., near municipalities that, one day, were socially and economically articulated around the town center; has been suffering from shrinking since the beginning of the activity. Despite the obvious economic benefits in one part of the population, they have a clearly unequal distribution determined by the employment status with regard to the mining activity, causing short and long term social and identity conflicts. Additionally, social capital, segregation and unemployment rates speak unfavourably about the area's resilience to the crisis and challenges of global change. The final results have also been particularly enriching in the development of new theoretical concepts to be tested in future research such as ¿mining gentrification¿, ¿mining negative spillover¿ or ¿megaprojects addiction¿, as well as in terms of public policy regarding the regulation of large-scale mining in a global world.