Development, territory, and globalisation: The Tamarugal Province in northern Chile

Abstract

This article presents the thesis that public state policies, in addition to the weight of the mining-industrial economy, the actions of the municipalities, and the presence of new social actors, are factors that drive the political, economic, social, and territorial changes in the Province of Tamarugal. The study emphasises that we are witnessing a second cycle of economic exploitation focused primarily on copper production. Complemen tarily, rural Tarapacá is a territory that recycles and reinvents itself based on two types of globalization. One is associated with the territorial area where the mining activity operates and it is characterized by a steady participation in the globalised world. The other area is where poverty, exclusion, and the informal economy increase while the population decreases.