New extractivism in European rural areas: How twentieth first century mining returned to disturb the rural transition

Mármol, Camila del; Vaccaro, Ismael

doi:10.1016/j.geoforum.2020.07.012

Cited by 12 publications

(8 citation statements)

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“…In light of recent research that shows the rise of mining in Europe (del Mármol & Vaccaro, 2020), and in a context of decreasing societal dependency on mineral imports, as well as the pursuit of green transition, we can expect an increased pressure on rural areas, which begs the question how mining is perceived and motivated not only from above but also from below. The present study shows that concepts such as sustainability and development can be highly contested and given different meanings at the local level, and, at the same time, this contestation can be hidden by an apolitical veneer wherein ‘sustainable development’ comes to mean ‘that which must be sacrificed’.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In rural regions, the reasons behind mining initiatives (and other forms of extractivism, e.g., forestry or energy production) follow a similar logic associated with extractivism across the world (del Mármol & Vaccaro, 2020;Wilson & Stammler, 2016). New extractive projects are seen as protecting 'peripheral areas' from economic stagnation through the development of new infrastructure, local industries and employment opportunities (see also Dale et al, 2018).…”

Section: Sustainable Development Sacrifice and Depoliticisation In Lo...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While much research has focussed on the political nature of sustainability, less attention has been paid to what it means for rural areas in the EU and in Nordic countries. Studies from Europe (del Mármol & Vaccaro, 2020; Wilson & Stammler, 2016) however indicate that rural areas, in relation to mining, are taking the brunt of the impact from these extractivist interests, revealing the unequal power relations between urban centres and rural peripheries. For rural areas where welfare services are being dismantled and crucial infrastructure is suffering from neglect, mining investments hold a strong allure for local and regional governments, as they are believed to be able to kickstart the local economies, helping them to catch up with the economically stronger metropolitan areas.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…(2021) predict that the EU's increased demand for lithium will lead to new tensions and challenges for local communities. In their overview of extractivism, del Mármol and Vaccaro (2020) assert that mining is becoming a driving force behind socioeconomic transformations in peripheral areas across Europe, egged on by EU policies such as the EURMI.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Sustainable development and sacrifice in the rural North

Stiernström¹

2023

Sociologia Ruralis

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In this article, I examine how the grand narratives of sustainability, development and mining impact local governance in a Swedish municipality. I do this by studying three mining projects under implementation and relate them to notions of development and sacrifice to lend insights into what the new trends of mining in Europe outlined above mean for the rural North. I regard sustainable development as a political concept ascribed to activities (such as political programmes or investments). Based on ethnographic fieldwork in the Storuman municipality, I show how politicians, political parties and government administrators position themselves in relation to the three mining projects. I provide a detailed account of perceptions, responses and practices in a local government that engage with three mining companies seeking to open mines within the municipal borders. I show how a tug of war between ideas of sustainable development or survival through sacrifice depoliticises and stabilises a dominant political line in favour of mining within local politics. While the respondents differed in what they thought that sacrifice might lead to, ranging from environmental disaster and social suffering to economic prosperity, I reveal a process wherein sustainable development becomes translated into ‘that which must be sacrificed’.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Sustainable Development Sacrifice and Depoliticisation In Lo...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Sustainable development and sacrifice in the rural North

Stiernström¹

2023

Sociologia Ruralis

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“…Since 2000, the scale and universality of the activities and their 'accidental' destructiveness has increased. Even in Europe, people are still being dispossessed to expand lignite (brown coal) mines, despite traditions of rural conservation (del Mármol & Vaccaro 2020;Schuetze 2023). Extractivism can affect people almost everywhere; in the US fracking can occur inside relatively large towns (Briggle 2015).…”

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confidence: 99%

Disputes over Coal Mining and Gas Drilling in an Australian Country Town

Marshall

2023

CCS Journal

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This paper explores the repatterning of civil society, the social technologies of persuasion and information, and the role of socio-political contexts in Narrabri (an Australian country town, in Western New South Wales), and its surrounding region between 2018 and 2020. In Narrabri the consequences of Carbon Oligarchy are observed, as the oligarchy promoted new gas fields and expansions of a coal mine in the region. This expansion is justified by supposedly offering a solution to Narrabri’s apparent economic, agricultural and population decline problems, but for many local people, it worsens those problems. Conflict has been generated as a result, and the town has suffered painful fractures making the problems seem harder to solve because of the resulting disunity. The paper explores how the contest to justify the extraction also reduces the legitimacy of that extraction.

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“Take your responsibility”: the politics of green sacrifice for just low-carbon transitions in rural Portugal

van Meer,

Zografos

2024

Sustain Sci

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The EU has recently taken important climate action, notably through the launching of the European Green Deal. However, EU action has been criticized for its potential to generate a heavy increase in mining of ‘critical minerals’ necessary for renewables technologies, and so create green sacrifice zones both overseas and within Europe. We explore the politics of green sacrifice making through an analysis of green governance practices and opposition to them in a case of a lithium mining conflict in rural northern Portugal. We find that institutional rearrangements attempt to reconfigure lithium mining as a force for sustainability in ways that enable capital accumulation. Such reconfigurations clash with concerns about maintaining a meaningful life in localities where mining would take place, as well as alternative definitions of the logic of the circular economy and of what the proper scales of decision-making for marginalized territories should be. Government and corporate action attempt to resolve these clashes by promoting a discourse of ‘responsibility’, which assigns public institutions the role of convincing communities to accept ‘green’ mining; to corporations the role of exercising corporate social responsibility; and to affected populations the role of subjects whose political action should conform to their consumption habits and help deliver a distinctive ‘European way’ of being responsible in a warming world. We conclude that green sacrifice is essential for maintaining economic growth and a liberal order of governance, delivered through a biopolitics of inclusion that exists side-by-side with attempts at self-constitution. We highlight a contradiction between what such praxis tries to achieve and ways in which some critical constituencies seek to address democracy challenges of just transitions.

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New extractivism in European rural areas: How twentieth first century mining returned to disturb the rural transition

Cited by 12 publications

References 56 publications

Sustainable development and sacrifice in the rural North

Sustainable development and sacrifice in the rural North

Disputes over Coal Mining and Gas Drilling in an Australian Country Town

“Take your responsibility”: the politics of green sacrifice for just low-carbon transitions in rural Portugal

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