Social representations of mining activity after an environmental improvement program in the manganese district of Molango, in Mexico, and their implications for risk management

Minerva Catalán-Vázquez, Horacio Riojas-Rodríguez, Marlene Cortez-Lugo, Sandra Leticia Rodríguez-Dozal, David Hernández-Bonilla and Blanca Estela Pelcastre-Villafuerte

Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, 2019, vol. 62, issue 10, 1714-1735

Abstract: An environmental improvement program was implemented to reduce population exposure to manganese in the manganese mining district of Molango, in Mexico. This paper analyzes whether social representations about mining activity changed after the program and examines their implications for risk management. We used a qualitative design to compare prior with current social representations. Region residents insist that contamination affects their environment and health. In contrast, public officials and mining company staff find no evidence of harm; they regard mining as a source of regional and community development. Our findings indicate that residents know little about the environmental program. These representations hinder the achievement of cooperation agreements and risk management. We recommend that manganese risk management implements a comprehensive environmental recovery program that includes the perspectives of all the social actors. Social representation theory served to understand the discourses of social actors on manganese mining, taking into account their social context.

Date: 2019
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/09640568.2018.1512475 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:jenpmg:v:62:y:2019:i:10:p:1714-1735

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/CJEP20

DOI: 10.1080/09640568.2018.1512475

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Environmental Planning and Management is currently edited by Dr Neil Powe, Dr Ken Willis and George Bill Page

More articles in Journal of Environmental Planning and Management from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().