Los efectos urbanos de la minería en el Perú: del modelo de Cerro de Pasco y La Oroya al de Cajamarca

Abstract

The impact of mining on the Peruvian cities had different urban consequences throughout history. Colonial mining cities have gone to the company towns, which is still the predominant model today. The company town concentrated business responsibilities but also urban management. However, the global economy and the development of ICT technology have generated another enterprise model, where the mining urban impacts become all indirect.

This new enterprise model induces a reconfiguration of the urban structure that generates significant tensions with pre-existing everyday life, which are expressed, for example, in citizens perceptions about urban problems. In the city of Cajamarca, we maintain that for the majority of their inhabitants urban structure is close related with his hinterland, relation that is injured with modern urban development defined as flux spaces by Castells (1997) or metropolization by Ascher (2004). Study of tensions generated between urban-rural continuity and modern urban development will be very important if we are interested in produce results or recommendations in urban management for this kind of cities.