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WEHC 2025 – LIM Sessions

Social and Environmental Impacts of Mining: development and inequalities in global extractive industry from historical perspectives (19th-20th c.)

 Mining activity is an industry that frequently leads to the development of productive enclaves, linked to the geographical immobility of subsoil resources. These enclaves are not exclusive to mineral extraction, but mining industry is characterised by peculiar and sometimes long lasting social and environmental impacts that invite a specific  analysis. Also in relation with the debates concerning the so-called “resource curse”. Mining history provides materials for a comparative case study analysis which highlights the issue of inequalities and its relations with economic development, in a quite global perspective.

This session aims to advance knowledge of the history of mining and enrich the debate around the issue of inequality and development in mining industry through a series of contributions focusing on social and environmental impacts of extraction during both periods of industrialization and deindustrialization. The aim is to approach these issues from a multidisciplinary point of view: from a social point of view, the concept of inequality will be developed through the analysis of the  socioeconomic structure of labour (i.e.the formation of a mining labour market ; labour relations; discrimination phenomena (origin, gender, religion etc.); forms of remuneration; living conditions; and of the environmental effects of mining activity (pollution, health issues, overexploitation of resources, extractivism, clearing and regeneration).. Papers can also analyse the continuity of the economic activity in the mining areas once the veins were exhausted, deepening the study of the economic sustainability of an activity based on the exploitation of natural resources.

The importance of this session is related both to its contribution to the knowledge of the history of mining activity and to the analysis of a series of factors that are at the core of the debate  in social and economic history, i.e. social, economic and labour inequalities in mining areas, and the sustainability and environmental effects of a sector closely linked to natural resources. 

This session aims at deepening and advancing previous research related to mining history that has been discussed in previous meetings, and thanks to the new focus proposed as the theme of the Congress, “Challenges of Equality and Sustainability”, it will allow a further step forward in the advancement of research on economic history in mining.

Due to the breadth of the proposal presented and the large number of issues to be addressed, we request that, if this session is approved, a double session could be held, with a first part focusing on social issues and a second part on environmental issues.

Session 1: Social Inequalities and Environmental (un)sustainability in mining worlds

Invisible Mining Legacy: The Genealogy of Mining Sustainability
Juan Diego Pérez Cebada (University of Huelva)

Mining Companies, Local Communities and Inequal Access to Environmental Resources in the Mediterranean (1900–1950)
Francesca Sanna (University of Toulouse 2)

Colonialism, capitalism, environmental degradation and climate change: coal mining in the French colonial empire, 1873-1962
Armel Campagne (University College Dublin)

The Work of Women in Spanish Mining Areas from a Gender Perspective: Wage Incomes andParticipation in Family Budgets, 1900–1950
Ángel P. Martínez Soto, María Gómez, Noemi Redfield Muñoz (University of Murcia)

Discussants: J. J. Garcia Gomez, E. M. Trescastro Lopez

Sessions 2: Risk, Health and Living Conditions

The Diary of Industrial Risks: French Miners’ Safety Delegates and Their Work Environment (1890–1980)
Bastien Cabot, Charles Antoine Wanecq (Sciences Po)

The Health of the Mining Population: The Health Perspective of Rio Tinto’s Company Medical Services (1942–1959)
Eva Maria Trescastro-López, Josep Bernabeu-Mestre, Agustín Galán García, Alba Martínez-García (University of Alicante)

Living Conditions and Biological Well-Being in the Spanish Mining Areas of the 19th and 20th Centuries
Ángel P. Martínez Soto, Miguel Á. Pérez de Perceval Verde, Julia Vallés Rodríguez (University of Murcia)

Urban Penalty and Healthcare Reform in Spanish Mining
Antonio Escudero (University of Alicante)José Joaquín García Gómez, Víctor Luque de Haro (University of Almeria)

Discussants: F. Sanna

https://wehc2025.com/WEHC_Conference_Program_2025_v3.pdf


OpenEdition suggests that you cite this post as follows:
LIM COORDINATORS (July 30, 2025). WEHC 2025 – LIM Sessions. Labour In Mining. Retrieved March 8, 2026 from https://doi.org/10.58079/14g6g


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