Against a backdrop of neoliberal policies aimed at opening up investment opportunities for foreign capital and rocketing world commodity prices, the number of large-scale mining operations in Peru has increased significantly since 1990, bringing in their wake a plethora of conflicts involving local communities across the national territory. The publication of this monograph is consequently timely and welcome. The opening chapters provide case studies that plot the origins and trajectory of disputes in six locations: Tambogrande and Majas (in the department of Piura), Yanacocha (Cajamarca), Antamina (Ancash), Las Bambas (Apurímac) and Tintaya (Cuzco). Four main scenarios are encountered, ranging from areas of low conflict to those characterised by permanent low-intensity conflict, to locations where sporadic social explosions are followed by negotiation among the various parties, and finally to zones of persistent high conflict. Four central players in these disputes are also identified: the mining corporations (usually foreign-owned), provincial and national agencies of the Peruvian state, local communities (frequently resource-poor minifundistas eking out a living in the high Andes), and ‘external agents’ such as political activists, environmental groups and NGOs, both national and international. Shifting interactions among these often competing forces are shown to determine the success or failure of particular protests.

Overall, the empirical chapters in the monograph are of uneven quality, which reflects the degree of understanding possessed by the individual authors. While some contributors have lived and worked in an area for several decades, have been personally involved in mobilisations and are well acquainted with key participants, others write on the basis only of several weeks' fieldwork. Unsurprisingly, these case studies lack depth vis-à-vis the warp and woof of local politics, especially with regard to delicate questions of corrupt practices concerning dealings between the mining corporations, bureaucrats and politicians, the buying-off of movement leaders, and the suborning of local media. Other crucial dimensions of micropolitics, such as the tactics employed by the employees of local and national state institutions to divide and rule with the goal of ‘managing’ protests, required further exploration.

In the second section, an attempt is made to relate the empirical data to contemporary social movement theory, especially the literature surrounding resource mobilisation, collective action and ‘identity’. The aim is to combine the ‘why’ emphasis characteristic of much European literature on new social movements, with the ‘how’ concerns typical of much US research. It is stressed that large-scale extractive operations can disrupt established customs and agricultural practices (logically, control over water resources emerges as a prime issue), especially in zones possessing no mining tradition. When such activities have a negative impact on the village collective ‘identity’ and challenge accepted views of ‘development’, protest is the likely outcome.

The authors also highlight historical memory as a key enabling factor in determining capacity for mobilisation, along with a particular movement's ability to overcome the social atomisation found within and between many farming communities. Zones possessing a tradition of organising rondas campesinas at the village and provincial levels are seen to possess the ability to overcome social fragmentation and create strong grassroots movements that can complicate the operations of even the most powerful mining multinationals. Mobilisation capacity is also assisted by widespread suspicion of the pronouncements of mining companies regarding the ecological impact, use of ‘clean’ technology, and safeguards surrounding their operations. Neither do communities believe the blandishments of politicians. A complete lack of trust in the state creates an environment conducive to mobilisation, and once a protest develops, local officials soon become overwhelmed due to incompetence and lack of resources. In consequence, conflicts regularly take on a dynamic outside the control of movement leaders or the authorities – a scenario conducive to violence, as epitomised by the bloody events that unfolded at Bagua in June 2009. Although this section of the monograph raises many pertinent questions, the conclusion fails to relate the rich empirical data to the social theory in a succinct and coherent fashion, most likely the result of having many contributors. Even so, researchers working on contemporary Peruvian politics and social movements will find much of merit in this valuable addition to an expanding body of literature.