CFP EADI conference -- The extractive imperative, a global phenomenon?
Lorenzo Pellegrini
The European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI) Conference 2020: Solidarity, Peace and Social Justice 29 June - 2 July 2020, at ISS, The Hague, The Netherlands.
Call for papers:
The extractive imperative, a global phenomenon?
Natural resource extraction is often seen simultaneously as a source of income, employment generation and financing for social policy expenditure and investment in infrastructure. More broadly, extraction itself is so central to development that it overrides any other concern and extractive activities seem to enjoy teleological primacy to the point that governments, and other social actors, embrace an ‘extractive imperative’.
According to this imperative, extraction needs to continue and expand regardless of prevailing circumstances, with the state playing a leading role and capturing a large share of the ensuing revenues. The difference between ‘extractivism’ (or neo-extractivism) and the extractive imperative is more than a semantic one. The former refers to development policies, whereas the latter can be located at a higher ontological plane as it describes the overall political zeitgeist, including but certainly going beyond state policies. That is, extractive activities play a foundational role in a model of development that, in turn, shapes expectations and policies. As such, the promotion of extractive activities prevails over other concerns and can undermine social justice.
The concept has originated in response to developments in Latin America (Arsel, Hogenboom, & Pellegrini, 2016) while the region was being swept by a series of leftwing electoral successes often referred to as the ‘left turn’. However, it is increasingly becoming relevant for the analysis of political economy dynamics outside this context as well.
Whereas the initial characterisation of the ‘extractive imperative’ gave primacy to state action, the contemporary conjecture in which extractivism creates resistance as well as consent, especially in ‘authoritarian’ contexts such as Brazil, Turkey and Philippines, makes this a particularly productive moment to discuss the evolution of the extractive imperative. Therefore, the panel aims not only to explore the shape of ‘extractive imperative’ in Latin America in the post-‘left turn’ era but also its contours globally as well as comparatively.
Final submission type: draft papers, (extended) abstracts
Convened by: Murat Arsel and Lorenzo Pellegrini (both from International Institute of Social Studies (ISS), the Netherlands)
The call for abstracts will close on 15 December 2019. Please submit your drafts at https://www.eadi.org/gc/2020/
Arsel, M., Hogenboom, B., & Pellegrini, L. (2016). The extractive imperative in Latin America. The Extractive Industries and Society, 3, 880–887.
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