The Extractive Industries and Society 7 (2020) 110–118

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The Extractive Industries and Society

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Original article

Discursive positioning of actors in a gold mining conflict in Northern Greece: T

Risk calculus, subjectification and place
Tasos Hovardas*,1
School of Political Sciences, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece

A R T I C LE I N FO A B S T R A C T

Keywords: The gold mining conflict in Skouries, Greece, has been a major natural resource controversy during the last
Discourse analysis several years. The present contribution focused on the discursive positioning of pro- and anti-mining actors, who
Mining all strove to remain agents of risk by employing manifest strategies (institutional and grassroots initiatives) and
Natural resource conflict latent strategies (not yet enacted but voiced). These strategies have been incubating divergent subject positions
Skouries
in each camp. Anytime the mining project was threatened, miners took over mining tunnels to demonstrate their
Subject positions
indispensable bonds with their work and place in a pre-burial connotation. In sharp contrast to miners’ de-
pendence on the mining company, local activists built on their own competences. Despite their strong bonds
with place, activists with a post-fordist model of working and labour conditions were compelled to consider
evacuating the area. The study showcases how natural resource conflicts are co-created by antagonistic actors in
their discursive positioning.

1. Introduction
Previous research targeting mining projects in confrontational local
settings converged on a set of findings for opposing camps (Conde,
2017; Haikola and Anshelm, 2016; Lindahl et al., 2018; Velicu, 2019).
Mining proponents picture the local society in decline and urgent need
of the input of strong external actors like multinational mining com-
panies. In contrast, mining opponents defend their place as a lifeworld
capable of sustaining a multiplicity of values and functions, which are
all threatened by mining. This camp promotes an alternative model for
local development based on agriculture and tourism. The differences
between the two camps reach well beyond the jobs vs. environment
dilemma to also include faith in institutional licencing processes, reg-
ulations and technology (existent among mining proponents but lacking
among mining opponents), scale of anticipated impact (confined for
mining proponents; extensive for mining opponents), and diversity in
the local economy (boosted by mining for its supporters, since mining
may coexist with other economic activities; severely compromised by
mining for its opponents, since mining is expected to dominate as a
monoculture in the long term).
Given these contrasting perspectives, mining conflicts may have
serious implications for social bonding, risk perception and place-based
identities (e.g., Özen and Özen, 2017; Versalon and Creţan, 2013). A
social divide has been highlighted by previous research in the study
area of the present contribution (Hovardas, 2017a, b; Calvário et al.,
2017; Hatzisavvidou, 2017; Tsavdaroglou et al., 2017). The area is si-
tuated in Northern Greece and has a long mining history (see detailed
description in Methods). A new mining project led to an escalation of
the conflict amidst the Greek financial crisis. The mining controversy
upset social ties even among close relatives and influenced people’s
bonds with their place. Mining proponents and opponents among local
residents needed to reconsider former social relations and develop new
bonds with peers, distance themselves from old habits, reallocate
priorities and time to pursue novel goals, and launch self-empowerment
initiatives to restore control over their lives.
In their study of a gold mining conflict in Romania, Velicu and Kaika
(2017) have described analogous developments as a process of sub-
jectification, building on the relevant work of Rancière (1981/2012;
1992). Subjectification involved abandoning prior subject positions and
adopting novel ones, for instance, to align mining opponents with the
anti-mining agenda and initiatives undertaken (for a similar analysis
see Avci, 2017). Subject positions are the “vantage points” for subjects
to orient themselves in the world and interpret it (e.g., Davies and
Harré, 1990; Wetherell, 1998). Laclau and Mouffe (e.g., Laclau and
Mouffe, 1985; Mouffe, 1992) elaborated on the various and at times
contradictory subject positions that may be taken by a subject. One’s

⁎
Present address: Department of Education, University of Cyprus, 75 Kallipoleos St, PO 20537, 1678 Nicosia, Cyprus.
E-mail address: hovardas@ucy.ac.cy.
1
https://www.linkedin.com/in/tasos-hovardas-85396932/.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.exis.2019.12.001
Received 20 August 2019; Received in revised form 5 December 2019; Accepted 6 December 2019
Available online 18 December 2019
2214-790X/ © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
T. Hovardas
capacity to integrate these different positions is crucial for the subject’s
unity. Discursive practices in natural resource conflicts are constitutive
in this regard: Actors defend their own positioning and confront rival
argumentation lines; in these attempts, rival acts are the enabling
conditions for performing one’s own discursive acts (e.g., Potter, 1996).
However, discourse may uncover contradictions between one’s own
subject positions (Davies and Harré, 1990, p. 47; Mouffe, 1992, p. 372).
These instances reveal the fragility of the subject’s unity: Given that
subject positions will be continuously challenged in discourse, they
cannot be permanently consolidated but may be only temporally fixed.
Discursive engagement may provide new positions to be taken up and
this supply can change the way that the unity of the subject is estab-
lished. Discursive positioning of pro- and anti-mining actors and their
subject positions, within an overall frame of subjectification processes,
will be the concentration of the present study.
Discursive practices acquire meaning in an interaction with an in-
terlocutor, where other actors’ discursive practices serve as the pre-
requisite for one’s own acts (Harrè and Slocum, 2003; Potter, 1996).
These are the background assumptions of the discursive positioning
perspective and have been implied in previous studies on mining con-
flicts (Özen and Özen, 2017; Tsavdaroglou et al., 2017), which all un-
derlined the mutually constitutive practices of actors in conflict. Al-
though these studies shed much light on the relational character of
inter-group dynamics, discursive positioning has not been used as an
analytical approach. The present contribution focused on the discursive
positioning of main actors in a prominent mining controversy in
Greece, when the mining conflict escalated (2013–2016). The main
objective was to highlight the added value of discursive positioning in
framing the conflict, including implications for the subject positions of
actors. The research focused on how the pro- and anti-mining camps
contrasted the costs and benefits they expected and the risks they were
willing to take if mining developments proceeded or not. The study also
concentrated on the strategies used by each camp to promote their
positions. The discursive positioning of actors and the subjectification
process they engaged in had several effects on their place-based iden-
tities, which provide novel insight for the analysis of mining and nat-
ural resource conflicts. The research questions were the following: (1)
How did actors present the anticipated costs and benefits of mining in
their discursive positioning? (2) Which were the main strategies em-
ployed by the pro- and anti-mining camps? (3) Which were the im-
plications of the mining controversy for the subject positions of engaged
actors?
2. Methods
2.1. Study area and context of study
The study area is in Northern Greece, Northeastern Halkidiki, and
involves several communities around a mountainous terrain next to the
seashore (Fig. 1). A new mining project was approved in 2011, which
involved open-pit mining and on-site ore processing in Skouries, a lo-
cation close to surrounding Natura 2000 sites (Fig. 1). The project was
taken over by Hellas Gold, controlled by 2012 by Eldorado Gold, after a
series of changes in the former company’s fluid shareholder structure.
Miners saw the new project as an opportunity for the whole area,
however, residents occupied in agriculture, fishing, forestry, and
tourism interpreted it as a major threat. The conflict scaled up in 2013
to mark the confrontation agenda between SYRIZA, the leading oppo-
sition party at that time which favoured the anti-mining movement, and
New Democracy, the leading governmental party which endorsed the
new mining project.
Within a wider climate of financial crisis in Greece, SYRIZA has led
a new governmental coalition in early 2015, which recalled technical
studies of the mining company (April and August 2015). The main
concern was the feasibility of the ore processing method foreseen (flash
melting). The company suspended its operation in August 2015, while
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The Extractive Industries and Society 7 (2020) 110–118
miners expressed their frustration by taking over the mining tunnels. A
major turning point in the conflict was the building permit for an en-
richment factory issued in February 2016 under the provision of a law
introduced by the former governmental coalition. The Greek govern-
ment launched an arbitration case against the mining company (August
2017), arguing that the latter had delivered a technical report that
deviated from the necessary verticalization of production for delivering
pure metals as end products, which would be a prerequisite for claiming
all expected tax revenue. The arbitration ruled against the Greek gov-
ernment (April 2018) and the pending permit for a metallurgy plant
was finally granted to the company in August 2018. In summer 2019,
New Democracy won the national elections again and the mining
controversy regained priority in the political agenda.
2.2. Data sources, criteria for data collection, and unit of analysis
Six data sources were used: (1) Newspaper articles; (2) interviews;
(3) posts in the website of Hellas Gold; (4) articles in Metalleutika Nea,
a magazine published by Hellas Gold; (5) posts in Soshalkidiki, a blog
supporting the anti-mining movement; (6) documentaries and TV panel
discussions. A first criterion for data collection was the time frame
covered, ranging from 2013, when conflict escalated after property of
the mining company was set on fire, to 2016, when the permit for the
enrichment factory was issued. The second criterion for data collection
was explicit citation of mining proponents or opponents (e.g., direct
quotes, see in this regard Montiel and De Guzman, 2011). A third cri-
terion was that subjects needed to explicitly refer to other actors in the
mining controversy. If such a direct reference to an interlocutor was not
present, data were not further considered. The second and third criteria
both addressed the perspective of discursive positioning followed in the
present study, since they allowed for a selection of discursive acts di-
rectly attributed to social actors in the mining conflict (second cri-
terion) which were directed towards other actors (for the use of posi-
tioning theory in examining intergroup relations see Harré et al., 2009;
Montiel and De Guzman, 2011). The unit of analysis across data sources
was a utterance of an actor (uninterrupted sequence of spoken or
written language) that included an explicit reference to another actor or
act (to be referred to henceforth as “extract”). In a final stage of data
selection, extracts were outlined which were triangulated across dif-
ferent data sources (fourth criterion of data collection).
2.2.1. Newspaper articles
Online archives of two national newspapers (Kathimerini, www.
kathimerini.gr, supporting the pro-mining camp; Efimerida ton
Syntakton, www.efsyn.gr, supporting the anti-mining camp) were
searched by keywords in title and text (“Skouries”, “gold mining”, and
the main settlements in the study area, see Fig. 1). Any article with
direct reference to the mining controversy was considered. In total, 25
articles in Kathimerini with 39 extracts and another 26 articles in Efi-
merida ton Syntakton with 42 extracts were selected for data analysis.
2.2.2. Interviews
Spokespersons of the pro- and anti-mining camp were detected in
newspaper articles, contacted and interviewed by the author after
providing their informed consent (all interviewees were briefed about
the research, given the option to withdraw from the research at any
time, and granted access to research results). Spokespersons were re-
quested to name other people engaged in the conflict. Through this
purposive sampling and snowball technique, 26 local residents were
interviewed, who represented equally the two camps. All interviewees
participated voluntarily and were guaranteed anonymity. One-third of
interviewees were females. Interviewee age ranged between 19 and 72
years. Interviews lasted from 45 to 60 min and were recorded with the
consent of interviewees. Interviews followed a semi-structured format
with two pre-determined themes: (1) Anticipated costs and benefits of
the new mining project; (2) strategies of engaged actors. Interviewees
T. Hovardas
were encouraged to expand on any issue they wished. New questions
were formulated by the interviewer to elaborate on emerging topics.
Interviews terminated when information was saturated. Overall, 63
extracts by mining proponents and another 57 extracts by mining op-
ponents were selected for data analysis.
2.2.3. Website of Hellas Gold
All posts in the website of Hellas Gold were considered for data
analysis (www.hellas-gold.com/). Out of 112 posts, 40 were selected
containing 93 extracts.
2.2.4. Metalleutika Nea
Sixteen issues of Metalleutika Nea, the magazine published by
Hellas Gold (2013–2016), were considered for data selection (https://
www.hellas-gold.com/press-room/metalleutika-nea/). Overall, 126
extracts were singled out for data analysis.
2.2.5. Soshalkidiki
All posts published in Soshalkidiki, the blog supporting the local
anti-mining movement, were considered for data analysis (arranged in
monthly archives in https://soshalkidiki.wordpress.com/). Out of a
total of 1802 posts, 125 were selected containing 224 extracts.
2.2.6. Documentaries and TV panel discussions
The following documentaries and TV panel discussions were se-
lected (see also References): (1) Alpha TV (2013); (2) Epsilon (2013);
(3) ERT3 (2013); (4) ERT3 (2015a); (5) ERT3 (2015b); (6) ERT3
(2015c). All documentaries and TV panels hosted both mining sup-
porters and opponents and were sponsored by nationwide media. A
total of 32 extracts by mining proponents and 41 extracts by mining
opponents were singled out for analysis.
2.3. Data corpus and data analysis
2.3.1. Data corpus
The data corpus included 717 extracts, 353 voiced by the pro-
mining camp (49.23 %; 39 extracts in Kathimerini; 63 in interviews; 93
in the website of Hellas Gold; 126 in Metalleutika Nea; 32 in doc-
umentaries and TV panels) and another 364 extracts voiced by the anti-
mining camp (50.77 %; 42 extracts in Efimerida ton Syntakton; 57 in
interviews; 224 in Soshalkidiki; 41 in documentaries and TV panels).
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The Extractive Industries and Society 7 (2020) 110–118
Fig. 1. Settlements (marked with white stars:
Olympiada, Stratoni; Megali Panagia; Ierissos)
and Natura 2000 sites in the study area (da-
shed sites): GR1270005 (“Oros Stratonikon –
Koryfi Skamni”, south of Olympiada and north
of Stratoni); GR1270012 (“Oros Cholomontas”,
west of Megali Panagia); GR1270003
(“Chersonisos Athos”, east of Ierissos) (Natura
2000 Map Viewer, http://natura2000.eea.
europa.eu/#). The dark star depicts the loca-
tion of Skouries. Top right: The location of the
study area in Greece noted by the cycle in the
smaller map.
2.3.2. Data analysis
Data analysis was based on a combination of grounded theory with
discourse analysis (see in this regard Fairhurst and Putnam, 2018) and
involved three stages. Open coding was first employed across all ex-
tracts to determine the codes used by the pro- and anti-mining camps.
Second, axial coding was employed (Strauss and Corbin, 1990, p. 96) to
reveal how engaged actors targeted other actors in the conflict. This
was an operationalization of discursive positioning and concentrated on
offensive (attacking rival positions) and defensive acts (defending own
positions). Sequences of discursive acts were arranged in story-lines,
which were jointly produced by the social actors who were interacting
and which provided the interpretative context through which discursive
acts acquired their social meaning and subject positions were elabo-
rated (Harré and Van Langenhove, 1991; Slocum and Van Langenhove,
2003). Extracts were classified and re-classified after repeated readings
of the entire corpus to unravel the interactionist confrontation between
the two camps and determine patterns in discursive positioning. Axial
coding was concluded by deleting codes with less than 10 extracts (638
out of a total of 717 extracts were retained). In the third stage of data
analysis, selective coding was used for a subset of the data corpus,
namely, the codes concentrating on the subject positions of actors. The
focus in this case was to examine how actors attempted to accom-
modate different and at times inconsistent subject positions. For each
stage of data analysis, inter-rater reliability was calculated for a 10 % of
the entire corpus with the assistance of a qualitative analysis expert.
This followed a preliminary discussion of data sources, criteria for data
collection, and unit of analysis. Reconsideration and re-assignment of
extracts into codes stopped after two rounds of classification, when
inter-rater reliability reached over 85 %. All data analysis concentrated
on a qualitative exploration of discursive practices2 and their implica-
tions for actors’ subject positions.
3. Results
3.1. Anticipated costs and benefits of the new mining project
The anticipated costs and benefits of the new mining project were
arranged in a well-structured risk calculus, with environmental and
employment concerns across a set of topics (Table 1). Overall, the pro-
2
Discursive practices were considered to involve both speech acts and phy-
sical acts (Laclau and Mouffe, 1987).
T. Hovardas The Extractive Industries and Society 7 (2020) 110–118

Table 1
Risk calculus with considerations of environmental impact, jobs and employment in the discursive positioning of the pro- and anti-mining camps.
Consideration Topic Pro-mining camp Anti-mining camp

Environmental impact Footprint The new mining project will affect a small proportion,
only, of natural resources
Threat Any adverse effects of the new mining project are
overtly overstated by local activists
Proof The fears expressed by mining opponents are
unfounded and they are based on invalid assumptions
Reversibility Mining secures environmental restoration, which is an
integral part of the new mining project
Trade-off Some environmental impact needs to be accepted in an
informed trade-off of costs and benefits
Jobs and employment Working and labour Working and labour conditions offered by the mining
conditions company cannot be compared to other alternatives
Employment alternatives There is no other serious employment alternative in the
region apart from mining
Heterogeneity in Mining is compatible with other local activities, such as
employment tourism and primary sector activities
Job supply and demand Job opportunities in the mining sector are even
considered among mining opponents themselves
Long-term effects Mining expansion will secure multiple benefits and a
much better future for local communities
The new mining project will increase the environmental footprint
of mining substantially
The new mining project presents a major threat for local
livelihoods
Adverse environmental effects are already identifiable, even
before full-scale implementation of the new mining project
Mining expansion will bring about non-reversible environmental
change
Trade-off not accepted, since the new mining project will
endanger irreplaceable environmental assets
Mining advocates themselves admit that they are willing to risk
their health to secure their jobs
There are many job alternatives locally to be readily exploited and
replace mining jobs
Mining expansion will turn the whole region into a mining
monoculture
Job losses due to mining expansion in the primary sector and
tourism will outweigh any job offers in the mining sector
In the long run, mining expansion will be only for the benefit of
the multinational mining company and at the expense of locals

mining camp presented environmental impact as minimal and em-

ployment opportunities as essential, while the anti-mining camp fol-
lowed the exact opposite rationale. Table 1 can be read horizontally,
line by line, to showcase the discursive positioning of engaged actors,
and vertically to reveal the nested argumentation of each camp. To
justify the low impact of mining and criticize the unfounded fears of
anti-mining activists, mining proponents referred to the mining history
in the area, former concerns of opponents which did not prove true, and
environmental conditions which had not deteriorated despite mining
developments:
This is heavy industry but you can have a look around. The landscape is
green, the quality of our sea and aquifer and air has been scientifically
checked and it is as good as it needs to be… These people told us in
Stratoniki that the village would collapse due to the tunnels underneath.
You can see if any house has ever collapsed. The history proves that these
people were liars. (Interview with a representative of a union of mi-
ners, male, 29 June 2014)
In contrast, mining opponents justified the footprint of mining ex-
pansion by highlighting the negative environmental effects that were
already discernible, even before the new mining project was developed
in full scale:
Two productive units in Olympiada found out that their milk had been
polluted with heavy metals when they were about to sell it to a cheese
dairy in the area. The mining company had to pay them whatever it takes
so that this would not be spread and it also obliged them to sell their stock
(Soshalkidiki, stock breeder and member of the local anti-mining
movement, male, 21 October 2016)
The discursive positioning of the two camps was exemplified when
elaborating on the reversibility of changes. To rebut the claim of anti-
mining activists for irreversible change, mining advocates replied that
the new mining project would guarantee environmental restoration in
the area. Indeed, environmental restoration by Hellas Gold would not
only address new mining operations but it would also involve issues
pending before Hellas Gold took over:
They disregard that mining is the major reason for environmental pro-
tection in the area, since its basic principle is to “act and restore”... They
go on terrifying people… They forget that the absence of mining in the
area will sound the alarm for environmental threat. Who and with what
cost will manage waste washed up from the three closed-down mining
sites? They cannot do that themselves. (Metalleutika Nea, issue 3, page
6, miner, male, 3 March 2013)
Among considerations for jobs and employment, mining advocates
put forward that the mining company offered working and labour
conditions which outperformed other alternatives. They added that
mining could be compatible with other activities in tourism and the
primary sector. Supporters of mining noted that mining jobs were even
examined among mining opponents and they suggested that mining
expansion would guarantee multiple benefits and a much better future
for all communities. A characteristic discursive act referred to the
closing down of the mines in the past and portrayed abandoned mines,
to showcase how undesirable it would be for the future of the area, if
the new mining project was not realized:
Is this really what we want in our place? Abandoned construction sites,
workplaces, and villages? And those who oppose the mining investment,
can they accept that development? How can all these current and future
jobs be replaced? Perhaps with seasonal waiter jobs in the tourist en-
terprises of the coastal zone?… Anytime when a construction site closes,
development ceases, progress stops. Northeastern Halkidiki should not be
condemned to decay and slow death. (Metalleutika Nea, issue 15, page
8, editorial note, February 2016)
Mining opponents challenged the supposedly ideal working condi-
tions in mining, when they cited miners stating that “jobs come first,
then comes health”. This was taken as an admission of mining risks by
miners themselves. Mining opponents highlighted numerous alter-
natives to replace mining jobs and they underlined that mining ex-
pansion would turn the region into a mining monoculture. Indeed, they
contemplated that mining expansion would lead to an overall job loss,
and they pointed out that it was the multinational company to enjoy all
benefit in the long-term at the expense of local communities. The two
extracts that follow were characteristic for the anti-mining camp. In the
first, a logger weighed job offer in the mining sector against anticipated
job loss in other sectors, and separated Stratoni, where miners pre-
dominated, from the other settlements. In the second extract, the
Coordinating Committee of the local anti-mining movement targeted
the mining company:
Now the company has 1500 employees… I could say that they can be
increased to 2000 or even 3000 people… South from Stratoni, however,
there are 5000 families. They are fishermen, farmers, stock breeders,
loggers… This is our occupation… So we have 3000 people working to
destroy the lives of 20,000 people in the wider region… (Interview with
logger, male, 1 July 2014)
This theatre of the absurd needs to stop. Multinational corporations need

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T. Hovardas The Extractive Industries and Society 7 (2020) 110–118

Table 2
Main strategies deployed in the discursive positioning of the pro- and anti-mining camps.
Strategies Pro-mining camp Anti-mining camp

Manifest Institutional The mining project proceeds according to the licensed Environmental
Impact Assessment (EIA) study, which has been delivered by the
company, and which is a state-of-the art and scientifically solid study
The legality and lawfulness of mining developments has been verified by
numerous decisions of the Council of State
Local people who oppose the mining project have been deliberately
misinformed about its supposed adverse consequences
Grassroots Miners argue that they will themselves control the mining company, if
they realize any deviation from environmental regulations and rules, since
they and their families would be the first to suffer from any adverse
consequence
Miners escalate their responses whenever the mining project seems to be
threatened by undertaking demonstrations and marches, and they may
even choose to take over the mining tunnels to defend their jobs
Miners have always organized in their unions to stand up for their labour
rights and they are committed to defend their jobs at any cost, anytime
this will be needed
Latent The mining company may choose to suspend its operation or withdraw
from the area dependent upon the price of gold and pending mining
permits
Violation of environmental regulations and EIA terms have been
repeatedly identified by competent authorities and verified after multiple
inspections
The decisions of the Council of State are questionable on a legal basis,
inconsistent with national and European environmental legislation and
case-law, and reflect favoritism of the mining company
The argumentation of the local anti-mining movement has been backed by
several academics and academic institutions
Activists march to the forest to monitor environmental change and gather
data to examine if the company complies to environmental standards
Activists escalate their acts by a scheduled set of initiatives involving
demonstrations, events, and concerts to sustain a network of regional,
national and international supporting actors
Activists acknowledge that they will need to depend on their own
strengths and competences, collaboration and decision-making to pursue
their goals
Several local activists are considering to evacuate the area, if the new
mining project was eventually realized

to be stopped from determining the future of the local society, which Grassroots acts in the case of miners involved a readiness to control
realizes that its survival is inseparably linked with place, with coexisting the company if they became aware of any divergence from environ-
in harmony with place… They need to be stopped from deciding who will mental regulations. Miners underlined that they themselves and their
be sacrificed to the logic of profit... (Soshalkidiki, Coordinating families were the first to bear the consequences of environmental de-
Committee of the local anti-mining movement, 2 October 2015) gradation and that they did not have lesser environmental concern than
anti-mining activists:
3.2. Strategies of actors engaged in the mining conflict Do you think we are irresponsible? That we are careless? That we are a
category of citizens who could sacrifice our health, the future of our
Data analysis revealed a rich repertoire of manifest strategies de- children, for a daily wage? That we would mortgage our property in our
ployed by actors, which involved institutional and grassroots initiatives region in vain? (TV panel, ETR3, member of local community
(Table 2). The former concentrated on the techno-scientific aspects of council, male, 14 October 2015)
the new mining project, such as the Environmental Impact Assessment
A prominent act for miners to escalate their responses was to take
study delivered by the company. The pro-mining camp referred to nu-
over the mining tunnels in the area, in a highly symbolic act which
merous decisions of the Council of State which were taken to verify the
showcased the bonds of miners with place. This act was displayed
scientific validity of this study:
anytime mining jobs or the investment of the mining company were
With its two decisions issued yesterday and today, the Council of State threatened and it was supported by their unions:
settles once and for all the legality of the Common Ministerial Decision,
In the central mining tunnel,…, this is where 100 miners have confined
which approved the Environmental terms for the operations of Hellas
themselves yesterday together with another 50 employees of the mining
Gold, and thereby declares null and void all claims of local residents
company who have already been there since Monday. As the President of
submitted in their appeals in 2011… The Fifth Chamber of the Council of
the Union of the Miners,…, has stated,…, the miners were completely
State dismissed the application for annulment supplied by 264 residents
acquainted with these conditions and their lives were not in danger at this
of the region…, confirming the environmental terms for the mining and
stage, while he further underlined that the conditions in the tunnels are
ore processing facilities… as well as the terms for removing, cleanup and
quite harsh. The miners are determined to stay in the tunnels until the
restoration of the old tailings ponds in Olympiada. (Site of Hellas Gold,
2000 mining jobs are secured… (Kathimerini, 26 August 2015)
19 February 2015)
Local activists performed an array of grassroots acts, for instance,
The position of mining opponents was that the mining company had
they marched to the forest to track landscape change and monitor how
violated environmental terms several times. They argued that the re-
the construction works of the company developed. Activists were able
cent decisions of the Council of State were inconsistent with national
to observe the gradual destruction of the forest, while they collected
and European environmental legislation and case-law and indicated
data to check if the company complied with environmental standards.
that competent authorities favoured the mining company. They often
These were two characteristic extracts for such acts:
cited academics and academic institutions who were highly critical of
the new mining project to justify the validity of their concerns: The landscape up in the mountain has changed. We can see that from
here day by day. We have seen all the destruction. Step by step. All the
Universities and renowned scientists have documented their disagreement
arbitrariness. People cannot easily grasp it. And this is why we have
with mining expansion in Halkidiki and have testified the dangers such
decided to meet and discuss, together with those who have expressed their
an expansion would entail. They warned for highly negative and irre-
solidarity, other movements and collectives, individuals, to talk and listen
versible consequences in forest ecosystems, water resources, the atmo-
to, in order to see how we will move from now on. With destruction in the
sphere, the soil, the sea, the heath of local residents, visitors and all
background. (Efimerida ton Syntakton, member of the Coordinating
people engaged in the various productive activities… (Soshalkidiki,
Committee of the local anti-mining movement, female, 20 August
Coordinating Committee of the local anti-mining movement, 14
2014)
January 2013)
On Good Friday and Easter Sunday we discovered that Kokkinolakas, a

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T. Hovardas
major stream linked to the facilities of Eldorado, turned red from acid
runoff from the mines in Mavres Petres. Once again, the allegedly
trustworthy company which complies with all environmental terms as it
has always claimed in the press and as it has always declared empha-
tically in any response to doubt and accusation, was caught off guard.
Perhaps they believed that the environmental crime they had committed
was not to be detected due to the holiday… The District Attorney and the
police were informed in writing, while the Environmental Inspectors were
called to undertake an inspection. (Soshalkidiki, Coordinating
Committee of the local anti-mining movement, 3 April 2015)
Activists escalated their acts by demonstrations and concerts with
artists who stood by the local anti-mining movement and assisted in
establishing and broadening a network of regional, national and in-
ternational supporters. Although activists have frequently used this
external support they have also highlighted their ability to survive and
endure without being dependent upon the mining company:
In the world of Eldorado and corrupted media we do not exist. We
farmers, stock breeders, fishermen, bee keepers, people in tourism. We
who managed to survive for years without being dependent upon a
multinational company… (Soshalkidiki, Coordinating Committee of
the local anti-mining movement, 17 January 2016).
Apart from manifest strategies (i.e., implemented or under im-
plementation), actors in both camps also considered strategies not yet
enacted but explicitly voiced (i.e., latent strategies). For instance, the
mining company was ready to withdraw from the area, dependent upon
the price of gold or pending mining permits:
The company reduced its fixed assets in Greece by 1.6 billion Euro, since
the price of gold decreased substantially in the global market as com-
pared to the initial value of the company’s investment in 2012 (1.8
billion dollars). These would certainly not be the latest news if the in-
vestment of Eldorado would have proceeded according to schedule and if
the company did not have to face the well-known problems with the
administration, which peaked lately and led the company to put on hold
part of its activities. (Kathimerini, 28 January 2016)
Interestingly, an analogous latent strategy was voiced by activists
when they considered to evacuate the area, if the new mining project
was realized. This consideration was not triggered by any type of re-
location programme, which was never offered to local residents, but it
exemplified how mining opponents were compelled to weigh risk-
taking:
I have heard a lot of people thinking about packing and leaving the place.
I am also thinking about it seriously. We should not take such risks. This
is the place where we were born and brought up. This is why it is too
harsh for us. Should we wait for the time to come when people will die
and when we will have to breathe all this dust and drink water that will
be polluted? If we could live another 20 or 30 years why should we live
only another 10 years? And it is not only us, but it is also our children.
(Interview with fisherman, male, 22 June 2014)
3.3. Subject positions of engaged actors
Subject positions of engaged actors were explored by selective
coding in the third stage of data analysis and after the risk calculus and
strategies of actors had been described through open coding and axial
coding. The emphasis of selective coding was on how actors in both
camps maintained a unity of subject positions and under which con-
ditions these subject positions would be maintained or destabilized.
Table 3 presents the results of this analysis. Both miners and anti-
mining activists strove to sustain their employment. However, this ef-
fort differed considerably between camps. For miners, the new mining
project constituted a prerequisite for keeping their job, since mining
expansion has been an indispensable part of the investment portfolio of
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Hellas Gold. Interestingly, the mining company secured locally much
better labour and working conditions for its employees than the ones
dominating all over Greece during the financial crisis:
The salaries Eldorado can offer are good. We are not speaking now about
salaries of hunger at the level of the collective agreement. You may earn
1200 Euro per month, or 1500 and 1800 Euro, these are good salaries. If
you are an unskilled worker and started yesterday, for instance, you may
get 900 or 1000 Euro for a five-day working week. Where else can you
get that money? (Interview with miner, male, 27 June 2014).
The new mining project seemed to establish an assembly line of
open-pit mining and on-site ore processing, which allowed miners to
maintain traditional corporate arrangements with their trade unions
reminiscent of a fordist model3, and which perpetuated male-domi-
nated work ethics and culture. Anytime this arrangement was threa-
tened, miners were ready to take over the mining tunnels in the area to
defend this fordist model. At the same time, the mining company exe-
cuted an extended programme of corporate social responsibility and
acted as a surrogate of the state in multiple ways. Mining supporters
pictured the mining company as an everlasting nurturer and provider,
as an Amalthea4, which would never let them down:
Are you aware of many municipalities in Greece which would decline an
annual contribution of 3–10 million Euros with the exclusive purpose to
cover their needs? (Metalleutika Nea, Issue 5, page 6, editorial note,
May 2013)
Mining opponents, on the other hand, wished to maintain sound
environmental conditions to be able to display their risk agency in a
post-fordist arrangement of an entrepreneurial type. While miners
strove to secure their jobs and took an informed risk in terms of ac-
cepting some minimal environmental impact related to mining, mining
opponents had an exact opposite rationale: They had to be sure they
could operate under environmental conditions of an acceptable quality
to be able to undertake their entrepreneurial tasks in primary sector
activities or tourism. Anytime they stated their readiness to evacuate
the area, they were admitting that they could reach a point where they
could no longer secure their autobiography in the area. These core
features of the post-fordist model characterized several extracts, which
portrayed an economy of scope with small-scale heterogeneous pro-
duction and diversification, taken over by a feminised workforce within
a culture of entrepreneurialism and under a harsh critique of miners
being dependent on their employer:
How can you get a license for organic milk in a mining area? You cannot
get such a license here for establishing an organic farm. We are now
trying to avoid the characterization of our region as a mining region, so
that agrotourism would also be possible… Wherever you have a mining
area, it cannot coexist with anything else, mining cannot coexist with
3
The fordist and post-fordist models describe two different ways in con-
ceptualizing and organizing the production process, with marked psychosocial
and cultural implications (Gramsci, 1971; Harvey, 1990). In the fordist model
(fordism), mass production is based on the “assembly line” archetype and labor
productivity is maximized by establishing work routines (Taylorism), which
result in economies of scale. Mass production is sustained by mass consumption,
supported by bureaucratized unions with relatively increased density of un-
ionized labor and institutionalized collective bargaining. The post-fordist model
(post-fordism) emerged in the 1970s and focuses on specialized products ne-
cessitating an increased diversity in terms of worker skills, largely related to
new technologies, as well as responsibility and autonomy. In the post-fordist
model the labor force becomes highly differentiated, with flexible industrial
relations to accommodate this diversification, which are negotiated in a de-
centralized manner, thereby, weakening the importance of unions. For a con-
tradistinction between fordism and post-fordism see Harvey (1990, p. 125-140;
141-172) and Ritzer (2011, p. 303-305).
4
In Greek mythology, Amalthea was a nurturing goddess, often taking the
form of a goat that nurtured the infant Zeus.
T. Hovardas
Table 3
Subject positions in the pro- and anti-mining camps.
Miners
Main demand pursued Sustaining basic labour
and working conditions
Core features of main demand Fordist
Prerequisite for maintaining risk agency The mining company worshiped as Amalthea
Response considered if risk agency is compromised Take over mining tunnels
farming, stock breeding, bee keeping, tourism, fishing… (Interview with
farmer, female, 20 June 2014)
And in our case, here, those who went to work for the company,…, there
was not even one distinguished individual among them in our town. That
is, one was reaching his forties and did not have a job and was supported
by his family… and all of a sudden he could be found with a job in the
mines… (Interview with tourist entrepreneur, female, 29 June
2014).
4. Discussion
The risk calculus employed by engaged actors allowed them to be-
come or remain agents of risk, namely, to retain or claim accountability
for their actions, sustain calculability and manageability of future
events, and be able to choose freely among alternatives (e.g., Rasborg,
2012; Russell and Babrow, 2011). Niklas Luhmann (1990) dis-
tinguished “danger” from “risk” by underlining that the latter involves
an informed decision by the subject to be exposed to possible threat
(Luhmann, 1990, p. 138; see also Christoffersen, 2018). A subject is in
“danger” where she may suffer harm but has not deliberately integrated
it into a risk calculus (i.e., trade-off of costs and benefits related to the
subject’s exposure to threat). Acting by means of such a calculus would
signify taking a “risk”. A “danger” would only become a “risk”, if an
actor would be given the chance to assume responsibility for being
exposed to a threat. Under this frame, miners would not be willing to
endanger their jobs and this was accompanied by an acceptance of
some exposure to environmental damage to secure employment op-
portunities in the mining sector. Conversely, mining opponents would
not negotiate environmental quality threatened by mining to be able to
take their chances and succeed in their entrepreneurial activities in
agriculture and tourism.
In their goal to maintain risk agency, both camps were engaged in a
set of strategic acts. As reported in analogous case studies, the local
anti-mining movement questioned the credibility of the mining com-
pany in conforming with environmental terms (e.g., Özen and Özen,
2017; Versalon and Creţan, 2013) and recruited academics to decon-
struct the techno-scientific discourse of pro-mining actors (see Anshelm
et al., 2018). In an exemplification of discursive positioning, academic
input was a necessary addition to the anti-mining camp to match up
against the approval of the Environmental Impact Assessment study of
the mining company and several decisions of the Council of State fa-
voring mining developments at the institutional level of reference. The
local movement enacted a repertoire of both institutional tactics (also
termed “insider tactics”) and extra-institutional, grassroots tactics
(termed “outsider tactics”; see Adams and Shriver, 2017). If the insider
gateway was necessary to the movement to prove their legitimacy as a
credible challenger of the new mining project, the outsider gateway was
indispensable to maintain their confrontational potential against the
rival camp. Indeed, in some cases it was only through outsider tactics
that the insider perspective could have been pursued, for instance,
when employing citizen science (e.g., outsider) tactics to collect sam-
ples from a local stream and be able to challenge the mining company
in fulfilling environmental regulations (insider tactic).
The present study showcases how natural resource conflicts are co-
created by antagonistic actors in their discursive positioning. For
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The Extractive Industries and Society 7 (2020) 110–118
Anti-mining activists
Sustaining basic labour
and working conditions
Post-fordist
Environmental quality for securing autobiography
Evacuate the area
instance, miners admitted themselves to a supervising role of the
mining company in keeping track with environmental regulations to
confront activists who marched to the forest and “saw” environmental
destruction unfolding in front of their eyes. Discursive positioning in
this case may imply a tendency of miners to lower risk perception and
downplay the severity of impact as a defensive mechanism for one’s
identity (Anton and Lawrence, 2014; De Dominicis et al., 2015). Al-
though interpretations of actors for the same scenery were diverging,
the escalation of conflict verified the strong bonds of both miners and
anti-mining activists with their place, the former acting below the
ground by taking over mining tunnels, the latter acting above ground to
protect the forest.
Despite the fact that all actors declared strong bonds with place,
latent strategies in some cases involved intentions to evacuate the area.
Several activists voiced such an intention, converging in a paradox
manner with the latent strategy of the mining company itself. Previous
studies highlighted instances of “escapism” (Broto et al., 2010) or
“anticipatory detachment” (Devine-Wright, 2009) to describe the op-
tion to leave one’s place, provided that bonds with place deteriorated
and self-efficacy was weakened. In the present study, however, anti-
mining activists were determined to defend their place and their par-
ticipation in the local movement provided numerous instances of em-
powerment to support their self-efficacy. Was it not contradictory to
resist mining and be ready to evacuate at the same time? Local activists
marched to the forest to protect it, which may have strengthened their
place attachment. However, these marches provided proof of environ-
mental degradation as long as the signs of mining developments were
changing the landscape. Activists referred to the destruction they “saw”
and, at the same time, they needed to keep on fighting to halt this
course of events.
We may approach this contradiction within an ongoing sub-
jectification process. Activists were empowered by capitalizing on sci-
entific expertise and networking to facilitate their insider/outsider
tactics. By doing so, however, they could no longer deny accumulating
proof of anticipated change. A crucial issue for mining opponents oc-
cupied in primary sector activities and tourism was that potential harm
could not only decrease their profit but also compromise their ability to
relocate, if needed. For instance, to relocate a micro-enterprise may
necessitate liquidating part of the business as well as purchasing and re-
establishing mobile or immobile assets elsewhere. Environmental harm
could decrease the value of assets currently owned and add an extra
cost on top of any reasonable loss to be expected due to any transaction.
If chosen as an alternative, evacuation had to be attempted within a
certain time window, before the ability to move had been undermined.
Elaborating on exodus pointed towards a delicate balance in actors’ risk
taking, especially, avoiding false positives, e.g., evacuate when winning
the battle was still possible, and false negatives, e.g., staying in the area
when leaving would have been warranted, which would lock activists
in a situation of “involuntary immobility” (see Askland, 2018). The
interplay of manifest strategies, ascertaining a continuity in discursive
acts, with latent strategies, introducing a discontinuity with former
practices, can be approached by means of actors’ reckoning to avoid
such false positives and false negatives.
Strategies deployed to maintain risk agency, however, have been
incubating divergent subject positions in each camp. Miners referred to
their employer as a guarantor of job stability despite its fluid and
T. Hovardas
contingent shareholder structure (see for a similar note Mayes et al.,
2014). Such a referent propagated an ahistorical image of a corporation
which would always secure a continuity in working conditions and
prospects in the mining sector (for a relevant and insightful elaboration
see Rajak, 2014). Discursive acts which presented local communities in
decline and in need of the economic support and corporate social re-
sponsibility of the mining company contributed to consolidating ana-
logous subjectivities, which would depend on a continuous input and
assistance by the mining company. Propagating the company as a sur-
rogate of the state came along with a totemic version of the company as
an omnipresent nurturer and provider of the region, a local Amalthea.
This positioning remained blind to many socio-economic implications
and devoid of the transition in shareholder control. Anytime the pre-
sence of the company in the area was threatened, miners would take
over mining tunnels to defend their work and identity and demonstrate
their indispensable bonds with place in a pre-burial connotation.
In sharp contrast to miners’ dependence on the mining company,
local activists built on their own competences. The subjectification
process in the local anti-mining movement introduced or reinforced
numerous qualities such as autonomy, self-reliance, responsibilization
(i.e., accepting responsibility for one’s own livelihood), which are
considered to be constitutive features of the neoliberal subject (Dardot
and Laval, 2017; Lemke, 2001). This would not entail, of course, that
neoliberal subjects would endorse neoliberalism as a political orienta-
tion. We may follow the birth of this new type of subjectivity as an
outcome of the frontal match between the fordist and post-fordist
models in our mining controversy: The fordist model was represented
by the mining company setting up an open-pit mining and ore proces-
sing assembly line, and its employees, who enjoyed job security and
higher than average wages amidst the financial Greek crisis. The post-
fordist model was represented by local anti-mining activists, whose
entrepreneurial risk-taking depended on environmental background
conditions. For mining opponents, the subjectification process which
incubated a neoliberal subjectivity may have incorporated exodus as a
new fixation of subject positions: While striving to halt adverse en-
vironmental change, mining opponents were compelled to consider
evacuating the area, if background conditions deteriorated beyond a
turning point, which would compromise their ability to move. They
were gradually “freed” from place, by denying job security in the
mining sector, by rearranging social bonds, by considering exodus as an
option. Local activists were “freed” from place to resume responsibility
for their auto-biography elsewhere, exactly because they had been
successful in doing so while operating in the study area. Exodus would
provide the best proof for the establishment of a neoliberal subjectivity,
indeed, since mobility would restore the unity of such a resilient subject
after being “freed” from place (see also Foucault, 2008, p. 230; Elliott
and Urry, 2010). Interestingly enough, the latent intention of anti-
mining activists to evacuate the area resembled the analogous latent
strategy of the mining company itself.
5. Conclusions
Although changes at the national scale may have substantial im-
plications for mining conflicts at the local scale, for instance in terms of
political-institutional conditions (Engels, 2018), the present study
showcased that the discursive positioning of local actors determined
how the conflict has evolved locally, and most importantly, how it
demarcated the subject positions of actors. Indeed, it has been reported
that governmentality discourses promoting an extractive imperative
can give rise to counter-discourses and subjectivities of local resistance
(Van Teijlingen, 2016). The complexity behind the discursive acts in the
study area may explain why initiatives in the frame of corporate social
responsibility alone cannot always suffice to address the causes of
mining conflicts (Aguilar-González et al., 2018) or why place attach-
ment can have mixed effects (Conde and Le Billon, 2017). The het-
erogeneity within and across local settings is also reflected in diverging
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The Extractive Industries and Society 7 (2020) 110–118
recommendations of previous research, which can range from in-
tegrating and institutionalizing indigenous and local demands, for in-
stance, by calling for an incorporation of social impact assessments as a
necessary part of environmental impact assessments (Nygaard, 2016),
to considering such an integration as hardly possible, for instance, in
line with a perspective of “extractive dispossession” (Roche et al.,
2019).
Since discursive acts of pro- and anti-mining camps were arranged
and adjusted so as to perfectly oppose one another, the present study
does not seem to support conflict resolution and reconciliation in the
study area and analogous settings. The study revealed how actors en-
gaged in the gold mining conflict in Northeastern Halkidiki, Greece,
referred to the benefits and costs related to mining expansion using a
risk calculus as an organizing principle, contrasting considerations for
environmental impact to those for jobs and employment. The risk cal-
culus allowed pro- and anti-mining actors to claim or maintain risk
agency and informed their manifest and latent strategies with marked
implications for their subject positions. Specifically, the strategies and
subject positions of the pro-mining camp were reminiscent of a fordist
model, where place attachment was largely equated with attachment to
an assembly line of open-pit mining and on-site ore processing set up by
the mining company, under the job stability and security of traditional
corporate arrangements and a male-dominated working environment
and ethics. The strategies and subject positions of the anti-mining camp,
however, reflected a post-fordist model of an entrepreneurial orienta-
tion with small-scale heterogeneous production and diversification
taken over by a feminised workforce, where sound environmental
conditions were a necessity. The present study has delivered a theore-
tical and methodological toolkit for exploring the discursive positioning
of actors and their intergroup dynamics, which shape mining conflicts
in the study area and other mining “frontiers”. Future research needs to
shed more light on these dynamics, especially by incorporating a
thorough account of subjectification processes and shifts in subject
positions of engaged actors.
Funding
This work was partly supported by the project “MEMOTRADE -
Social memory of water-related trades and practices: Local knowledge
and climate change adaptation”, within the frame of CIRCLE-2 ERA-
NET (Adaptation to Climate Change from a natural and social science
perspective: Water in coastal Mediterranean areas). The funding was
provided by the Mariolopoulos-Kanaginis Foundation for the
Environmental Sciences. The sponsor had no involvement in study de-
sign; collection, analysis and interpretation of data; the writing of the
report; and the decision to submit the article for publication.
Declaration of Competing Interest
None.
Acknowledgment
I am grateful to interviewees and to Yannis Stavrakakis for his
support.
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