Narratives of extractivism

How do they shape the transition imaginaries in the mining contexts of Ecuador and Portugal

Title (eng)
Narratives of extractivism
How do they shape the transition imaginaries in the mining contexts of Ecuador and Portugal
Author
Ximena Alejandra Tapia Palacios
Advisor
Kay Mühlmann
Advisor
Jorge M. Martins Rosa
Description (eng)
In the context of a mining extractivism dependance on the availability of raw materials for the energy transition, we observe the consolidation of an alliance between the State and mining companies to provide structures and conditions to ensure it. This implies the expansion of the extractive frontier that requires the creation of sacrifice zones. To implement a type of governance based on extractivism, this alliance elaborates a series of narratives designed to legitimate the values, norms, and social practices that enable its objectives. It is argued that the volume of worldwide extraction is intensifying unequal ecological exchange at multiple scales and exacerbating socio-environmental conflicts, both in the Global North and South. Drawing on the cases of Ecuador and Portugal, we analyze the conflicting narratives that explore extractivism and the expansion of the mining frontier as a shared problematic. These narratives explore the imaginaries of "national development", "sustainability", "energy transition", "territorial governance", as well as the dispute over the discourse and community rights. This work also seeks to map the transitions that are already occurring, with a particular focus on rural areas that are engaged in multiple processes of territorial re-existence and resistance to the advance of mining. We see throughout the paper that these actors, in their anti-hegemonic narrative, propose alternatives that contemplate the construction of radical and post-extractivist transitions as part of a broader process of transformation of culture, economy, territorial governance, and the relationship between humans and Nature.
Keywords (eng)
ExtractivismMiningEnergy TransitionSocio-Environmental ConflictsLithiumNarrativesGovernanceSacrifice Zones
Type (eng)
Master theses
Language
[eng]
Persistent identifier
https://door.donau-uni.ac.at/o:5263
Date created
2024
License
All rights reserved