Anthropology and the mining arena in New Caledonia : issues and positionalities

In the last 25 years, the mining sector has become an important field of investigation and controversy for anthropologists. As an object, the mine' itself poses specific problems that make it particularly fertile ground for the exploration of inextricably linked theoretical, methodological, ethical, and political issues. In this paper, I explore the issue of the positionality of anthropologists within the mining arena. The analysis of positionality is taken beyond an individual perspective focusing on ethics, engagement and responsibility, to additionally include discussions of networking, alliance-building and institutionalising processes. I shall begin by dealing with the problems posed by the anthropology of mining and the various perspectives that respond to it. In the second section, I narrow the focus to the case of New Caledonia. In the third section, I present the context and challenges associated with the discussed cases. I portray the cases in question and, in particular, the new arena represented by the National Centre for Technological Research (CNRT) Nickel and its Environment', an agency established in 2008 to fund research on nickel in New Caledonia. The analysis in terms of a hybrid' forum of this arena will be complemented by the consideration of the social demand for the anthropology of mining. In the concluding section, the paper outlines options for further research while stressing the need for a balanced, symmetrical' approach of the multiple actors' agendas constitutive of the mining arena