Spatial repertoires of power in the production of mining territories in northern Cauca, Colombia: Between imposition and negotiation

Abstract

Territorial conflicts driven by the expansion of various forms of mining have escalated in the Global South. This article builds on the concept of territorialization, which often highlights the control of sociogeographical spaces by powerful through legal and coercive strategies. While existing literature addresses these power dynamics and resistance by less powerful actors, there is a gap in exploring the microscalar interactions that shape these territorial struggles. This study, based on ethnographic interviews and participant observation in the Afro-Colombian territories of the Quinamayó river basin, contributes to critical scholarship by decoupling the logic of territorialization from a top-down domination approach, emphasizing instead the everyday interactions and power relations that underpin territorial control. We explore the production of new mining territorialities from a quotidian and relational perspective, focusing on spatial repertoires of power, or a range of power strategies and relations that update extractive geographies in time. We find that territorial appropriation is defined and transformed through everyday moments of imposition and negotiation between multiple actors with different degrees of power. This microscale perspective deepens the understanding of territorial production, showing how daily interactions transform people’s connection to the territory, and highlighting the context-specific, agency-driven nature of these processes.