Searching for New Political Spaces: Negotiating Citizenship and Transnational Identities on Mongolia's Mining Frontier

With two of the world's largest mining projects, Mongolia has become one of Asia's key mineral producers in the past 20 years. Mongolian pastoralist communities living in the South Gobi region in the vicinity of large-scale mining operations have recently turned to transnational dispute re...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of contemporary Asia 2023-03, Vol.53 (2), p.311-334
Main Authors: Hatcher, Pascale, Lander, Jennifer
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Citizenship
Complaints
Discourses
Identity
Identity formation
Indigenous peoples
Legal norms
Minerals
Mining
Mining industry
Mongolia
National identity
Organizational power
Pastoralism
Political power
political space
State power
Subjectivity
Transnationalism
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Summary:With two of the world's largest mining projects, Mongolia has become one of Asia's key mineral producers in the past 20 years. Mongolian pastoralist communities living in the South Gobi region in the vicinity of large-scale mining operations have recently turned to transnational dispute resolution arenas to lodge their grievances and seek redress. Notably, these pastoralists have sought to trigger international grievance mechanisms on the basis of being indigenous people, even though they are not recognised as such by their government. This article situates this contemporary mobilisation of pastoralist communities in relation to large-scale mining projects within a longer history of state (de)regulation of the pastoralist economy. It reflects on the role of non-state legal norms and mechanisms in introducing new forms of legal and political subjectivity into the milieu of discourses surrounding Mongolian pastoralist identity and livelihoods. The article reflects on the potential implications of extractive economy upon transnational identity formation, local/national political spaces, and strategic negotiations with state and corporate power.
ISSN:0047-2336
1752-7554
DOI:10.1080/00472336.2022.2032278