Understanding Extractivism: Culture and Power in Natural Resource Disputes

Description

Understanding ExtrACTIVISM examines current practice in, and activist responses to, the natural resource extraction industry. Following an activist anthropological approach, Willow provides a broad overview of the diverse extractive industries operating around the world, examining how culture and power dynamics inform extractivist practice disputes. Through a series of engaging case studies, she argues that contemporary natural resource conflicts are deeply rooted in a culturally-constituted 'extractivist' mindset and embedded in global patterns of political inequity. Offering a synthesizing framework for making sense of complex interconnections among environmental, social, and political dimensions of natural resource disputes, Understanding ExtrACTIVISM is key reading for students and researchers in the field of environmental anthropology, as well as activists. Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Contents Figures Boxes Foreword Acknowledgments 1 Introduction Extractivism ExtrACTIVISM Perspectives Chapters, cases, common themes Questions to consider, actions to take 2 Legacies Origins, part I From extraction to extractivism Origins, part II The more things change… Extractivist legacies Questions to consider, actions to take 3 Forests Forest histories Extractivist logging Forest case study #1: Every available log: Grassy Narrows First Nation, Ontario Forest case study #2: Our forest gives us life: Sarawak, Malaysia Forest case study #3: Owls versus loggers in the Pacific Northwest: North America’s temperate rainforest Conclusion Questions to consider, actions to take 4 Water Hydroelectric histories The trouble with hydro Water case study #1: The death of a delta: The Colorado River and the arid Southwest Water case study #2: As long as the rivers run: Hydropower and Cree rights in Québec Water case study #3: Damming the Xingu: Contested development in the Brazilian Amazon Conclusion Questions to consider, actions to take 5 Mining Mining past, mining present The meaning of mining Mining case study #1: Mining the yellow monster: Uranium and the Navajo Nation Mining case study #2: The end of the land: Mineral riches and riverine tailings disposal in New Guinea Mining case study #3: Wisconsin’s mining war: The Sokaogon Chippewa versus the Crandon Mine Conclusion Questions to consider, actions to take 6 Coal Fueling a revolution Coal and its consequences Coal case study #1: Fighting for their future: Mountaintop removal in southern West Virginia Coal case study #2: Powder River priorities: The mine-mouth model and the Northern Cheyenne Coal case study #3: Trading environmental health for economic growth: Coal combustion and air pollution in China Conclusion Questions to consider, actions to take 7 Oil and Gas Rock oil The world that petroleum built Oil and gas case study #1: Petro-violence in the Niger Delta: Sixty years of environmental and economic injustice Oil and gas case study #2: The most destructive project on earth: Mining oil in northern Alberta Oil and gas case study #3: Fracking the American heartland: Contested landscapes of the shale energy boom Conclusion Questions to consider, actions to take 8 You Decide Extractivism multiplied: The problem of cumulative effects Extracting the sun and wind: The problem of renewable energy Ways forward Questions to consider, actions to take References Index