Extractive resources and emotional geographies: the battle for treasured places in the Gloucester Valley

Abstract

This paper explores citizen perceptions of mining operations located in the Gloucester Valley, New South Wales (NSW), Australia. With an already lengthy history of two coal operations, tensions were exacerbated in the Valley upon the announcement of new unconventional gas operations and a third coal mine proposal. Concerned citizens highlight how mistrust in State processes and legislation combined with reservations about safety resulting from a deeply divided community, impacted both place attachments, community cohesion, and steered activist strategy towards locating the sites of struggle outside of local places.

Employing emotional geographies literature as an exploratory frame and research approach, we explore the unique case of the Gloucester Valley struggle against unconventional gas and new coal mining. By doing so, we explore the role of emotions in these mining struggles. This framing also builds understandings of the emotional geographies of place-based citizens that shift and evolve in response to the threat of extractive resource operations, and responds to an Ey et al. (2017) call for additional research that explores emotions and mining.

The framing and approach to the project offers an insight towards research sensitivity towards communities already stressed by mining operations. By centring emotions in our approach, and emphasising relationship-building and trust between the researcher and participants, we were able to explore the deeper underpinnings of citizens’ concerns for local mining operations than those typically captured by social impact and community engagement approaches.