Translating values into action: What can be done?

If one accepts that, for the time being anyway, mining must continue (despite its unsustainable outlook) this book demonstrates the enormous changes required in the mining sector, and the educational projects and courses needed to develop a new generation of engineering students, who are willing to make these changes to create an industry which is more equitable and just. As one small example of potential positive changes, this chapter builds on the work of Chapter 2, and attempts to draw together the views of different stakeholders in that context, with the aim of creating some guidelines for change. Chapter 2 presented the perspectives of a selection of community members at two mine sites about their experience of social conflict with the Peruvian state and with mining companies. These detailed narratives revealed deep hostility toward the state and the mining companies based upon treatment by police and by company officials. The experiences of these men and women are varied but have given rise to a common belief that neither the government nor the companies hold any respect for the values, beliefs and needs of community members. There may be community members at those mine sites who do not share those views, and it is also evident that each company has a different social history with the communities that live within or alongside areas affected by mining. However, there is enough evidence from research in the same region and from other sites of social conflict in Peru to acknowledge that negative perceptions of mining companies and government bodies are common, are based on similar issues, and that the depth of these feelings are evident in the strength of opposition to mining in many parts of Peru. The results of the first project were presented as a set of guidelines which laid out the key areas for improvement needed to create equitable negotiations in the future. This second project aimed to deepen the context of these guidelines by exploring how companies and Governments who have positive relations with communities, appear to have applied them, or from the perspective of the communities, could do so in the future.