Des grandes machines et des petites personnes : les impacts des projets miniers sur les parcours de vie des habitants de deux villes de l’Abitibi
In the early 19th century, an ambitious agricultural, and then, mining colonisation project, leads thousands of people to move to Abitibi, a region located north of Quebec. Over the years that followed, the official narratives highlighting the local economical benefits will often contrast with the lived experience of social and economical instability produced especially within the mining industry. In this context, this research focuses on two Abitibi mining towns that developed around significantly distinct scenarios. On one side, Rouyn-Noranda had become the region’s administrative center, combining an important governmental sector with a mining industry that often pushes its workers to face relocations through constant fly-in fly-outs. On the other side, Malartic, a small town of around 3000 inhabitants, has been going through controversial debates since 2006 following the presentation and later construction of an open pit gold mine site, displacing around 200 buildings. Throughout this thesis, I propose a phenomenological approach in order to discuss the complexity of the impacts of such public policies over the local population, as well as the power balance implied by the simplification of this complexity by privileged actors designing the mainstream narratives around these projects. Lastly, I develop the concept of big machines so as to assist us in the understanding of phenomena characterised by an extraordinary strength, presented under a narrative of control that hides a strategy that seeks the production of ignorance, as well as the consequences of such dynamics over the life course of local inhabitants and mining workers.
Abitibi mines grandes machines ignorance planification industry big machines mining towns public policy complexity phenomenology planning life course risks