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The "Ethnic-Card" and the Commodities Boom in Mexico: How Conflicts for Natural Resources shape Ethnic Identity

Miguelez, Mariana
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1671818501296828

Abstract Details

2023, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Political Science.
Prior to the commodities boom in the mid-2000s, ethnicity was rarely an important vehicle for social mobilization in Mexico. And yet, today, after 300 years of assimilation policies that forced many groups to suppress their indigeneity, ethnicity is increasingly used as a mechanism of social resistance in the context of battles over resource extraction. Importantly, not all emergent resource conflicts are framed in ethnic terms. Rural communities in some municipalities mobilize against resource extraction using ethnic claims, while in others, commodities conflicts continue to be articulated in class terms. My dissertation examines this important and unexplored variation in the salience of ethnicity among rural groups in Mexico and asks: under what conditions do conflicts over natural resources lead to the use of ethnic identity as a mode of resistance? How are different communities using the ‘ethnicity card’ as a mechanism for participation and inclusion? And, when are different identity discourses for mobilization and claims-making adopted? I argue that the geographically patterned rise of ethnically-based resource conflict in Mexico is the result of two intersecting dynamics: first, the rise in commodity-based exploitation and, second, the institutionalization of indigenous rights. While the rapid increase in extraction concessions granted by the state during the commodities boom created a motive for mobilization, the new indigenous legal regime altered the incentives for different strategies of resistance: class vs ethnically-based. To better understand these dynamics, I utilize a mixed-methods design. The first part of my empirical examination is centered on a statistical analysis of an original dataset on concessions and commodities-based conflict in Mexican municipalities from 2000 to 2020. Through fixed effects panel models as well as matching and diff-in-diff techniques, I explore linkages between resource extraction, institutions, and the nature of rural conflict (class vs ethnically-framed) over time. I then focus on an in-depth qualitative analysis of three representative cases from my database with variations in patterns of conflict and identity (the states of Oaxaca, Puebla, and Sonora). Through focus groups in eight different municipalities and 15 elite interviews, I explain micro-level variations within populations and identify causal links between extraction, institutional opportunity, and ethnicity. I show that conflict for commodities and institutions trigger ethnic salience in rural groups that rarely made ethnic claims in the past (especially in areas with traditional authorities –either indigenous or not-). I argue that this is because newfound ethnic rights have served many previously underrepresented groups as a ‘soft-tool’ for inclusion and political participation. Furthermore, this has long-term effects on social mobilization in municipalities that used ethnic vs class narratives for resource conflict (and vs areas with extraction but without conflict). The implications of these findings are relevant both theoretically and empirically since few studies on contestation and identity politics have examined how patterns of ethnicity have shifted in response to conflict for commodities (especially among ‘ranked’ societies such as Mexico, where actors are not expected to organize along ethnic lines). In addition, few studies on the ‘resource curse’ have considered the role of identity in mobilization strategies.
Sara Watson (Committee Chair)
Jan Pierskalla (Committee Member)
Sarah Brooks (Committee Member)
243 p.
Political Science
ethnicity, identity, conflict, commodities, ethnic rights, prior consultation, indigenous mobilization

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Miguelez, M. (2023). The "Ethnic-Card" and the Commodities Boom in Mexico: How Conflicts for Natural Resources shape Ethnic Identity [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1671818501296828

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Miguelez, Mariana. The "Ethnic-Card" and the Commodities Boom in Mexico: How Conflicts for Natural Resources shape Ethnic Identity. 2023. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1671818501296828.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Miguelez, Mariana. "The "Ethnic-Card" and the Commodities Boom in Mexico: How Conflicts for Natural Resources shape Ethnic Identity." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2023. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1671818501296828

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1671818501296828
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© 2023, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.
Release 3.2.12