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Challenging the Gospel of Neoliberalism? Civil Society Opposition to Mining in Armenia

Protest, Social Movements and Global Democracy Since 2011: New Perspectives

ISBN: 978-1-78635-028-2, eISBN: 978-1-78635-027-5

Publication date: 9 June 2016

Abstract

This paper examines the introduction of neoliberal policies in the mining sector in Armenia and the civil society opposition to those policies and practices. While recognizing that neoliberal policies have global reach, the paper examines how neoliberal policies are locally translated, manifested, and resisted in Armenia and analyzes the factors that shape resistance to neoliberal policies. It argues that the anti-mining activists have created new subjectivities and spaces for activism where they resist and challenge neoliberal policies and practices in the mining sector as well as the heretofore accepted formal practices of civil society advocacy and engagement in policy processes. Although the anti-mining activists have not changed the way mining is practiced in Armenia, they have opened up debates around mining, and neoliberal policies more generally, and created new understandings and practices of civic activism and social mobilization in Armenia.

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Acknowledgements

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank Evelina Gyulkhandanyan, Sona Manusyan, Arpy Manusyan, and Arus Harutyunyan for their support and assistance with the research in Armenia. This research was made possible through funding from the Armenian Communities Department of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (grant number 120554). The views expressed are the author’s own and do not in any way represent the views or the official position or policy of the foundation.

Citation

Ishkanian, A. (2016), "Challenging the Gospel of Neoliberalism? Civil Society Opposition to Mining in Armenia", Protest, Social Movements and Global Democracy Since 2011: New Perspectives (Research in Social Movements, Conflicts and Change, Vol. 39), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 107-136. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0163-786X20160000039005

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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