A riveting portrait of the cultural struggles and political conflicts of proposed copper-nickel mines in Minnesota's Iron Range On an unseasonably warm October afternoon in Saint Paul, hundreds of people gathered to protest the construction of a proposed copper-nickel mine in the rural northern part of their state. The crowd eagerly listened to speeches on how the project would bring long-term risks and potentially pollute the drinking water for current and future generations. A year later, another proposed mining project became the subject of a public hearing in a small town near the proposed site. But this time, local politicians and union leaders praised the mine proposal as an asset that would strengthen working-class communities in Minnesota. In many rural American communities, there is profound tension around the preservation and protection of wilderness and the need to promote and profit from natural resources. In Mining the Heartland, Erik Kojola looks at both sides of these populist movements and presents a thoughtful account of how such political struggles play out. Drawing on over a hundred ethnographic interviews with people of the region, from members of labor unions to local residents to scientists, Kojola is able to bring this complex struggle over mining to life. Focusing on both pro- and anti-mining groups, he expands upon what this conflict reveals about the way whiteness and masculinity operate among urban and rural residents, and the different ways in which class, race, and gender shape how people relate to the land. Mining the Heartland shows the negotiation and conflict between two central aspects of the state's culture and economy: outdoor recreation in the Land of Ten Thousand Lakes and the lucrative mining of the Iron Range.
Erik Kojola is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Texas Christian University.
Kojola tells a fascinating story in a geography that is often ignored by the rest of the country. In doing so, he reveals the fundamental importance of culture and white identity for conflicts that appear to be all about policy or economics. An impressive analysis. * Justin Farrell, author of Billionaire Wilderness: The Ultra-Wealthy and the Remaking of the American West * Emphasizing community dynamics and the political-economic, cultural, and symbolic power of mining as an extractive economy, Kojola offers skillful analysis of complex conflicts over land use, rights, and access related to emergent copper-nickel mining in northeast Minnesota's Iron Range. Revealing the voices of stakeholders and tensions linked to emotions, class, race, gender, masculinity and femininity, the narrative offers nuance and insight into a community divided. Kojola's work provides expert sociological insight into ways of understanding, experiences of nature, identity, and sense of place in a space uniquely rich with collective history with a complicated past and an uncertain future. * Tamara L. Mix, author of Meet the Food Radicals * Erik Kojola offers a deeply engaging, multi-methodological study that reveals the complex relationships among place, emotion, and collective memory in the formation of rural, white cultural identity and how they influence political decisions around environmentally risky development. Mining the Heartland skillfully explores how environmental, cultural, and class politics can be understood more fully if we pay attention to how nonhuman elements and species are mobilized through efforts to promote change and defend collective identity formation. This book speaks directly to the heart of what is driving political polarization in the U.S. today. * David N. Pellow, author of What is Critical Environmental Justice? * In this engaging and grounded book, Kojola vividly portrays how conflicts around extractivism represent complex intersections between race and racism, settler colonialism, histories of place, and systems of inequality. Kojola's ethnographic account takes on deep social fissures that transcend this case, contributing to vital conversations on equity and justice. * Stephanie A. Malin, co-author of Building Something Better: Environmental Crises and the Promise of Community Change *
