A TERRITORIAL COMPROMISE. ENHANCING THE ACCEPTABILITY OF MINES AND THEIR CONSEQUENCES IN 19TH CENTURY FRANCE

Abstract

Literature addressing the environmental impacts of mining tends to deal with post-mine transition and the retrospective management of environmental hazards. This article, on the other hand, enhances our understanding of how mining companies have succeeded in reducing how the threat of industrial hazards caused by underground extraction is perceived since the beginnings of the industrial era. By focusing on the case of the Pas-de-Calais coalfield from the mid-19th century to the early 20th century, this article shows how mining-related ground subsidence phenomena have been transformed from a single problem to be addressed into a far more wide-ranging policy of land use. The policy can be considered to be one of industrial paternalism. For the companies, this involves controlling the locations where they operate and this includes accepting the negative externalities for which they were accountable. The article shows how industrial paternalism has proven to be a powerful tool for the acceptance of environmental hazards of the Pas-de-Calais coalfield. Surrounding populations have been offered financial compensation and have been granted access to regional economic prosperity and mine-related social services. This “territo-ry-based compromise” remained stable until the era of deindustrialization when mining activities were in decline at the same time as the concern for the environment was growing in prominence.