Supposed Impacts, Real Violence: The Construction of Reality in the Implementation of the Minas-Rio Project

Abstract

The article analyzes the environmental impact assessment procedure of the mine and the iron ore processing structure which integrate the Minas-Rio Project, a mining complex composed by minepipeline -port, whose facilities extend across two states in the Brazilian Southeast. The analysis aims at demonstrating, through a reading of the political rituals performed in the participative scene of the licensing process, how mechanisms used to "bend" environmental norms were articulated throughout the process, generating strategies and force-ideas which, in articulation, allowed the operation of the venture despite the notorious lack of knowledge/acknowledgement of the affected population.Key words: mining; performed rituals; environmental impact assessment; conflicts; affected people. Projeto Minas-Rio, complexo minerário formado por mina-mineroduto-porto, cujas instalações atravessam dois estados do Sudeste brasileiro. A análise objetiva demonstrar, a partir de uma leitura dos rituais políticos performatizados na cena pública do licenciamento, como mecanismos destinados a flexibilizar as normas ambientais se articularam ao longo do processo, gerando idéias-força e dispositivos que, agindo em cadeia, permitiram a operação do empreendimento, apesar da notória insuficiência no que se refere ao conhecimento/reconhecimento da população atingida.

Introduction: Reconstructive biographical research

“…This outlook provoked a historical and processual orientation, in particular studies of the historical period of National Socialism and its long-term effects (Kaźmierska, 2012;Rosenthal, 1998), and of the transformation of former socialist states in Eastern Europe (Breckner et al, 2000;Kaźmierska and Waniek, 2020). The diachronic orientation of biographical research gives it added value in thematic contexts, social milieus, or geographic regions where there is little written documentation -for example, in research on youth groups, informal neighborhood contexts, or in the case of lost documentation (Becker, 2020;Santos, 2010).…”