Extractivismo unearthed: a genealogy of a radical discourse

This article provides a genealogy of extractivismo discourse. In South America, the critical discourse of extractivismo has shifted political horizons and fomented a protracted intraleft dispute. Decades of neoliberalism unified popular movements to resist austerity and recuperate national sovereignty, but the ascendency of leftist administrations across the continent fragmented the field of radical politics. Ecuador exemplifies this internecine conflict: environmental and indigenous activists and allied intellectuals crafted the discourse of extractivismo to resist President Rafael Correa’s ‘21st century socialism’. State actors assert that oil and mining revenues will trigger economic development. But anti-extractive activists contend that ‘the extractive model’ pollutes the environment, violates collective rights, reinforces dependency on foreign capital, and undermines democracy. Drawing on 14 months of archival and ethnographic research, I recover the source discourses of extractivismo and outline the conditions of their coalescence into a novel problematic. I trace extractivismo to the neoliberal period (1981–2006). In that period, I identify the co-existence of two distinct critiques of resource extraction, which I call resource radicalisms: resource nationalism and proto-anti-extractivism. But alongside it, in their struggle for territorial sovereignty and collective rights, Amazonian indigenous groups articulated the discursive elements that would later be unified by the term extractivismo. I argue that a particular conjuncture – the election of a leftist President, the rewriting of the Constitution, and the government’s avid promotion of extractive projects – enabled the crystallization of extractivismo discourse. Anti-extractive resistance in turn triggered a tectonic political realignment: activists that once fought for the nationalization of natural resources now oppose all resource extraction, a leftist President finds himself in conflict with the social movements who initially supported his election, and the left-in-power has become synonymous with the aggressive expansion of extraction. Finally, I consider the tension between extractivismo-as-critique and its capacity to generate collective action.     

Mapping Strategic Engagements: WOMEN'S MOVEMENTS AND THE STATE

Abstract

Given that all women's movements share a unique relationship to the State – their exclusion from political power, often legally and occasionally constitutionally underpinned, has this exclusion shaped women's movements' strategies, which have had as their general goal women's political inclusion? Some similarities are evident across types of women's movements and across nations. In this article, I discuss the ‘strategic dilemmas’ that women's movements are likely to face, and I attempt to identify the range of strategic responses employed by feminist movements. I begin with a definitional distinction between women's movements and feminist movements, followed by a discussion of women's relationship to the State. I identify similarities across feminist movements in four strategic dimensions: (1) movement autonomy vs state involvement; (2) insider vs outsider positioning; (3) separatist vs coalitional stances; and (4) discursive and influence-seeking politics. These strategic dimensions shape different opportunities for women's movements across different state configurations, offering openings for some types of women's movements that may be unrecognized or unexploited by others. The article concludes with speculations concerning women's movements' strategic action in the context of state reconfiguration.     

Social Movements and Patronage Politics: Processes of Demobilization and Dual Pressure

Why might social movements be highly contentious at one point in time and demobilize shortly after? Based on ethnographic fieldwork, this article examines the dynamics of demobilization of popular movements in a context of patronage politics. I argue that demobilization in these contexts results from relational processes creating a “dual pressure” stemming “from below” and “from above.” In social environments where patronage is pervasive, poor people develop survival strategies relying on clientelistic arrangements. They participate in a social movement organization (SMO) to voice their rights, but also to address pressing survival needs by gaining access to resources. These expectations of constituents create a pressure “from below” on leaders of an SMO, which respond by securing resources obtained through alliances with national political actors. In turn, these alliances create a pressure “from above,” because local leaders reciprocate this national support by eschewing the organization of collective actions. Drawing on data culled from 12 months of fieldwork on an Argentine peasant movement, this article inspects the interconnections between popular movements and patronage politics to refine our understanding of demobilization processes; contribute to discussions regarding the role of culture on contentious politics; and shed light on current demobilization trends in Latin America.     

Globalization and the New Spaces for Social Movement Politics: The Marginalization of Labor Unions in Bolivian Gas Nationalization

This article aims for a critical engagement with the new spaces for social movement politics. Recent literature focusing on the relationship between globalization and these spaces foregrounds the new opportunity structures for political practices. Yet amid talk of ‘grassroots globalization’ and ‘globalization from below’, it is important to remain sensitive to how certain forms of practice and organization, particularly those of labor unions, are marginalized within the political spaces of globalization. This paper investigates how the political spaces of globalization shaped the nationalization of gas resources in Bolivia. Nationalization was achieved by new social movements partly negotiating within political spaces opened by globalization. Yet the interests and demands of labor unions were significantly marginalized in implementation. ‘Actually existing’ nationalization can best be described as a pragmatic renegotiation of contracts, in response to a dual pressure from new social movements and from economic globalization. Bolivian nationalization of gas illustrates how union politics around issues of work are constrained within the political spaces of globalization.

Este artículo intenta conseguir un compromiso crítico con los nuevos espacios para la política de movimientos sociales. Una literatura reciente con un enfoque en la relación entre la globalización y estos espacios, destaca las nuevas oportunidades de estructuras para las prácticas políticas. No obstante, al hablar de “la globalización de base popular” y “la globalización desde abajo”, es importante mantenerse sensible ante la manera como ciertas formas de práctica y organización, particularmente aquellas de los sindicatos laborales, se han marginado dentro de los espacios políticos de la globalización. Este trabajo investiga cómo los espacios políticos de la globalización dieron forma a la nacionalización de los recursos de gas en Bolivia. La nacionalización se logró mediante nuevos movimientos sociales, en parte negociando dentro de los espacios políticos abiertos por la globalización. Aún así, en la implementación, los intereses y las demandas de los sindicatos laborales fueron marginadas considerablemente. “De hecho, la nacionalización existente” se puede describir mejor como una renegociación pragmática de contratos, en respuesta a la doble presión de los movimientos sociales y a la globalización económica. La nacionalización boliviana del gas ilustra cómo la política de los sindicatos alrededor de los asuntos de trabajo, están restringidos dentro de los espacios políticos de la globalización.

     

Amazonia and the cultural politics of extractivism: Sumak Kawsay and Block 20 of Ecuador

ABSTRACT

This article explores the dynamics of power and ideology that congeal around the narrative of Sumak Kawsay, or Good Living in Ecuador. My purpose is document these social and cultural logics of extractivist capitalism through a detailed ethnography of these processes within indigenous communities in Ecuador. Specifically, I focus on the communities within Block 20 of Amazonian Ecuador, the site of the Pungarayacu heavy petroleum project, 2008–2015, in the Province of Napo. The paper provides an analysis and ethnographic examples of the political, social and cultural relations that defined the implementation of the heavy petroleum project in the region; the analysis details not only the close connections among the State, the company, and local governments, but also the way indigenous communities were controlled and subordinated to the interests of extractivism. My argument is that, for Amazonian communities located in strategic zones, extractivism is a sphere of exchange that is intimately connected with development. Development and its ideology of Good Living naturalize and legitimate extractivist activities, and allow capitalism to expand and adapt to different State logics. The narrative of Good Living, I conclude, is ideological. Its true purpose is not social welfare or the reform of capitalism, but rather power.     

Opportunities for transnational indigenous eco‐politics: the changing landscape in the new millennium

Abstract In the late 1980s, Amazonian indigenous peoples captured the imagination of northern policy circles and the larger public by strategically representing themselves as the solution to the environment‐development quandary. They accomplished this in part through linkages to northern environmental and human rights organizations. The formation of such transnational networks was made possible by a uniquely favourable cultural, political and economic climate that increased indigenous peoples’international visibility. Since that time, however, the landscape has changed and constricted earlier opportunities. Salient shifts include the ideological and financial polarization of the rainforest movement, a relative absence of Amazonian issues from international mass media and, overall, a devaluing of indigenous identity. The Amazon Alliance, a coalition formed out of a 1990 meeting between Amazonian indigenous groups and northern non‐governmental organizations, is the point of departure for a larger discussion of the changing landscape of opportunities for transnational indigenous eco‐politics.     

Latin American Identity Politics: Redefining Citizenship

Identity‐based social movements and politics have played an important role in Latin America since the 1970s and continue to do so today. In this essay, I argue that this form of politics – as it has taken shape across Latin America – has been defined by its intersectionality. I trace the ways in which neoliberalism has facilitated a certain kind of identity politics while limiting more radical political claims. I argue that identity politics have contributed to the current “pink tide” sweeping across the continent and are in continual dialogue with these new leftist governments as they redefine what it means to be citizen and what the relationship between state and citizen should be.     

THE ART OF BEING CRENTE: THE BANIWA PROTESTANT ETHIC AND THE SPIRIT OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

The central objectives of this article are to describe and analyze the Baniwa Art Project, a sustainable development project based on intensive production and commercialization of basketwork, which the Baniwa Indians of the Northwest Amazon (population approximately 12,000), with the assessment of the SocioEnvironmental Institute (ISA), a major NGO in Brazil, launched in the late 1990s. The goals of this project were to enhance the value of the Baniwa basket-making tradition, increase production within the limits of the sustainable use of natural resources, generate income for indigenous producers and their political associations, and train indigenous leadership in the skills of business management. This very successful project was initiated shortly after the creation of the Indigenous Organization of the Içana River Basin (OIBI) and essentially involves 16 of the more than 100 Baniwa communities of the Içana River and its tributaries in Brazil. This article reflects on how young Baniwa evangelical political leaders, with the support of the NGO, promoted the rise of individualism, as well as the introduction of Western values of economic and political success. This generated conflicts with more “traditional” values and practices of egalitarianism producing an increase of witchcraft accusations. The case of a young Baniwa leader who coordinated both the political association and the Art Project illustrates extremely well the sorts of grave conflicts that emerged. This article will also reflect on modifications in human/spirit relations following the introduction of evangelicalism and sustainable development projects. For this, I shall cite extensively from a recent interview I conducted with a Baniwa political leader regarding his perceptions of the relations between evangelicalism, the political movement, and the meanings for the Indians of the notion of “sustainable development.”     

INSTITUTIONALIZING SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: The Dual Strategy of the Korean Women's Movement

Since the 1990s, scholars have paid attention to the role of social movements traversing the official terrain of politics by blending a “contention” strategy with an “engagement” strategy. The literature often highlights the contribution of institutionalized social movements to policymaking and sociopolitical change, but rarely addresses why and how specific social movement organizations gain routine access to formal politics. Using the Korean women's movement as a case study, I analyze the conditions for movement institutionalization. As I perceive it as the consequence both of social movements' decision to participate in government and of the state's desire to integrate such movements into its decision‐making process, movement institutionalization appears when the three factors are combined: (1) pressure from international organizations, (2) democratizing political structures, and (3) cognitive shifts by movement activists toward the role of the state.     

Where are we when we litigiously judge? Politics and aesthetics in Hannah Arendt and Jacques Rancière

ABSTRACT

In contrast to the scenario depicted by Carl Schmitt, contemporary theory has contradicted the “thesis of differentiation” between aesthetics and “the political.” Critical theorists claimed aesthetic analysis’ relevance for grasping aspects of the political realm. And political thought took an “aesthetic turn.” Hannah Arendt and Jacques Rancière have been influential figures in this turn. Their thought offers a clear response to the challenges to the aesthetico-political Schmitt poses. To approach Arendt and Rancière’s responses, this essay proceeds in three parts. The first section analyses Arendt’s reading of the connection between aesthetics and politics. Focusing on a major shift in her perspective on judgement, I argue that her account is influenced by the ungrounded character of politics. The second section thematises the role that the relationship of aesthetics and politics has in Rancière’s work. I claim that his writings might be read as a challenge to Arendt’s attempt to “stabilise” politics by distinguishing it from the social question. Finally, the third section explicitly contrasts Arendt and Rancière’s accounts of the aesthetic-political. I conclude by arguing that their projects are crucial resources for formulating a critical theory that should resist the exceptionalist temptation to conceive “the political” as an incontestable nature.     

Who Wants a Deliberative Public Sphere?1

Democratic theorists and social scientists suggest that a deliberative public sphere would be good for democracy by maximizing emancipatory possibilities and providing broad legitimacy to political decision making. But do ordinary Americans actually want a deliberative public sphere? I examine this question in the context of four contentious “religion and science” debates. Through a multidimensional evaluation exercise with 62 ordinary respondents, I find that evaluation of public representatives in these debates tends to favor open‐mindedness and ongoing debate. Further, respondents explicitly discount elected representatives who participate in public debate precisely because they are seen as violating deliberative norms through their affiliation with electoral politics. Respondents want a deliberative public sphere. However, this desire reflects an understanding of the public sphere and institutional politics as disconnected arenas with incompatible rules and objectives, raising multiple questions for democratic theory and for political sociology.     

The Willingness to State an Opinion: Inequality,Don't Know Responses,and Political Participation

Most explanations of inequality in political participation focus on costs or other barriers for those with fewer economic, educational, and “cognitive” resources. I argue, drawing on Pierre Bourdieu's work on “political competence,” that social position in the form of income also structures political participation through differences in the sense that one is a legitimate producer of political opinions. I test whether income differences in participation persist net of costs by examining nonparticipation in a setting in which barriers to participation are low: answering political survey questions. Lower‐income people are more likely than others to withhold political opinions by saying “don't know” net of differences in education, “cognitive ability,” or engagement with the survey exercise. Further, political “don't know” rates predict voting rates, net of other predictors. Efforts to democratize participation in American politics must attend not only to the costs of involvement but also to class‐based differences in individuals' relationship to political expression itself.     

The Dual Strategy and Gender Policies of the Women's Movement in Korea: Family Headship System Repeal through Strategic Innovation

Abstract

Social movements sometimes successfully attain their goals by implementing policies and laws that represent their claims. Movement leaders raise issues susceptible to enactment as policies or laws, exploit legally and institutionally assured resources, and even participate at times in governmental policymaking and parliamentary lawmaking processes. This engagement strategy maximizes a movement's power to achieve its goals only when it is combined with the conventional activities of mobilizing collective action and forming dense networks across movement organizations to pressure the state. Based on the case study of Korean women's movements and their efforts to abrogate the patrilineal succession of family headship, I argue that movement activists' strategic innovation of blending “institutional politics” with conventional “movement politics”—that is, pursuing a dual strategy (Cohen and Arato 1992) and evolving into “movement institutionalization”—is critical to accomplishing gender policies and laws that, at least institutionally and legally, ensure gender equality.     

Internal migration and the politics of place: a comparative analysis of China and Indonesia

Spontaneous and organized population movements have long been used as a means of promoting a country's goals of development and national integration. At the local level, on the other hand, these movements have frequently done the opposite, fueling local grievances, sharpening group distinctions, and at times creating ‘sons-of-the-soil’ conflicts. In this paper, I explore this apparent tension between the national political rationale for internal migration and the political impact such migration has had locally, in four minority regions of China and Indonesia. I argue that the specific manner in which migration affects local politics is influenced by a country's political regime. In Indonesia, the impact of migration is observed in electoral politics, where ‘politics of place’ have been allowed to emerge. In China, it is perceived in the curbing of national minorities’ territorial autonomy. The role played by local elites and group competition between indigenous people and migrants are also reviewed.     

Can the Sámi speak Now?

This article analyses the on-going debate concerning Sámi definition in Finland, in order to examine some of the challenges that indigenous and minority voices are facing within the increasingly ‘postcolonial’ and ‘postmodern’ academia. Since the late 1960s, universities and institutions of higher education have been nodal points in a broad range of social and political struggles that have sought to decolonize and democratize science and knowledge. These struggles have challenged previous claims to truth and objectivity and paved way for the rise of a deconstructive research ethos, whose central objective is to bring voice to silenced, marginalized and subaltern subject positions. Although the academia might therefore appear today increasingly sensitive also for indigenous voices and research agendas, this article argues that the opposite might be the case: A research ethos, which explicitly aims to strengthen and empower the margin, can just as well work to silence indigenous voices, and end up supporting the agendas of the dominant society. In conclusion, I draw attention to four interlinked domains – context, truth, justice and politics – that need to be rethought, in order to reinstate the political and ethical vigour of critical research practices at large.     

Ayahuasca healing beyond the Amazon: the globalization of a traditional indigenous entheogenic practice

Ayahuasca commonly refers to a psychoactive Amazonian indigenous brew traditionally used for spiritual and healing purposes (that is as an entheogen). Since the late twentieth century, ayahuasca has undergone a process of globalization through the uptake of different kinds of socio‐cultural practices, including its sacramental use in some new Brazilian religious movements and its commodified use in cross‐cultural vegetalismo practices, or indigenous‐style rituals conducted primarily for non‐indigenous participants. In this article, I explore the rise of such rituals beyond the Amazon region, and consider some philosophical and political concerns arising from this novel trend in ayahuasca use, including the status of traditional indigenous knowledge, cultural appropriation and intellectual property. I discuss a patent dispute in Unites States and allegations of biopiracy related to ayahuasca. I conclude the article with some reflections on the future of ayahuasca drinking as a transnational sociological phenomenon.     

“Big Brother’s Bigger Brother”: The Visual Politics of (Counter) Surveillance in Baltimore

In 2016, without the knowledge of its citizens, Baltimore City Police deployed a military aerial surveillance technology called Wide Area Motion Imagery (WAMI), which can track the movements of every person in public view over the entire city. Though the trial of the “spy plane,” as the program was dubbed, quickly ended in scandal, organizers from Baltimore’s low-income minority neighborhoods successfully rebooted the program in 2020, this time framing WAMI partly as a tool of “sousveillance” (watching “from below”) that can track the movements of police officers. The paper shows how organizers “rebranded” WAMI around two conceptions of sousveillance—“citizen-centered” and “state-centered”—creating an unlikely coalition of supporters from both pro- and anti-policing sides of the criminal justice reform debate. But while the renewed program has vowed to be a “Big Brother” to the state, it will continue to be used for traditional surveillance, raising troubling questions about privacy. The article sheds light on the politics of watching and being watched in the era of technology-driven criminal justice reform.     

“Let's Call Ourselves the Super Elite”: Using the Collective Behavior Tradition to Analyze Trump's America

The mid‐twentieth century “collective behavior” school asserted that (1) collective behavior—the actions of crowds, movements, and other gatherings—had distinct dynamics; (2) such action was often “nonrational,” or not governed by cost‐benefit calculation; and (3) collective behavior could pose a threat to liberal democracy because of these features. While this tradition fell out of scholarly favor, the 2016 election has given us empirical reasons to revisit some elements of collective behavior approaches. We argue for three key orienting concerns, drawn from this tradition, to understand the current political era. First is a focus on authoritarianism and populism, particularly among those who feel disaffected and isolated from political institutions, pared of psychologistic determinism and geared more sensitively to their manifestations as a political style. Second is a focus on racialized resentment, strain, and perceptions of status decline, especially in how such feelings are activated when people are confronted with disruptions to their lives. Third is an analysis of “emergent norms” and the extent to which political actors produce normative understandings of contextually appropriate action that are distinct from traditional political behavior. We elaborate on these themes, apply them to examples from current politics, and suggest ways to incorporate them into contemporary sociological research.