Thesis Format
Monograph
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy
Program
Health and Rehabilitation Sciences
Supervisor
Mandich, Angela D.
Abstract
Despite a rhetorical commitment to enhancing community well-being, Canadian mining corporations have a history marked by ecological degradation and human rights violations, with women experience disproportionately negative impacts. While Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) is a desired topography for open-pit mining, the geographical area of the Dominican Republic has been largely absent from the literature. As such, this dissertation, rooted in decolonial ecofeminism, enacted a critical narrative inquiry with 7 women from the Dominican Republic to explore the gendered impacts of open-pit mining on their health and well-being.
This thesis is composed of six chapters, with chapter one introducing the rationale, guiding research questions, key terminology and researcher reflexivity. Chapter two consists of a scoping review which synthesizes the peer-reviewed literature regarding the gendered impacts of mining in LAC, revealing gaps which initiated this research. Chapter three provides an in-depth discussion of the methods, methodologies, paradigmatic understandings and reflexive insights of the research process. Chapter four presents a thematic analysis which reveals the seven main themes that arose from the critical narrative inquiry. These themes include ecological destruction; physical health and well-being; emotional health and well-being; sociocultural erosion; deception and corruption; systemic forces of power; and resistance and repression. Chapter five consists of a critical analysis of the findings, illuminating significant contributions, discussing methodological insights and presenting the dissemination of research findings. The concluding chapter reveals the broader implications of the findings and future directions of research in the field of gender and mining.
Through a decolonial ecofeminist perspective, this dissertation situates women’s narratives within systemic forces of power and illustrates the severity of gendered experiences caused and perpetuated by open-pit mining projects. This work makes a new and important contribution to a growing body of literature regarding gender and extraction, disrupting dominant narratives of transnational extraction and promoting health and well-being for mining impacts communities.
Summary for Lay Audience
While Canadian mining corporations claim that they are beneficial to the health and well-being of communities in which they operate, community narratives dispute such claims, noting severe ecological destruction and human rights violations, which are often felt most deeply by women. Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) is a prime location for mining corporations, but despite this, the Dominican Republic has not been an area of research in existing literature. Therefore, this dissertation uses a critical narrative inquiry, rooted in a decolonial ecofeminism, to understand the lived-experiences of 7 women living in proximity to an open-pit mining project in the Dominican Republic. A critical narrative inquiry uses storytelling to illuminate lived experiences while understanding how these experiences are situated within larger systems of power, such as colonialism, patriarchy and capitalism.
There are six chapters within this thesis. The first chapter introduces the rationale, guiding research questions, key terminology and reflexivity of the researcher. Chapter two consists of a scoping review which synthesizes existing literature regarding the gendered impacts of mining in LAC. This chapter reveals gaps which initiated the research questions presented in this thesis. Chapter three provides a discussion of the methods, methodologies, theoretical understandings and reflexivity in the research process. Chapter four presents the thematic findings of the research, consisting of ecological destruction; physical health and well-being; emotional health and well-being; sociocultural erosion; deception and corruption; systemic forces of power; and resistance and repression. Chapter five consists of an in-depth discussion and analysis of the findings, illuminating significant contributions, methodological insights, and the distribution of findings. The concluding chapter reveals the broader implications of the findings and future directions of research.
Through a theoretical perspective of decolonial ecofeminism, this dissertation positions women’s narratives within systemic forces of power, illustrating the severity of women’s experiences caused and maintained by open-pit mining projects. This work makes new and important contributions to the field of research surrounding gender and extraction and aims to promote health and well-being for mining impacted communities.
Recommended Citation
Gain, Klaire, ""We are the Living Dead": The Gendered Impacts of Open-Pit Mining in the Dominican Republic" (2023). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 9753.
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/9753
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.