The Politics of Extraction : Territorial Rights, Participatory Institutions, and Conflict in Latin America

Mining and hydrocarbon production in Latin America is high-stakes for extractive firms, communities in resource-rich zones, and states. Amid global commodity price increases and liberal economic policies, the sectors have expanded dramatically in recent decades. This surge has made private investors and governments in the region ever more committed to extraction. It also has increased alarm within local communities, which have organized around the environmental, cultural, and social impacts of mining and hydrocarbons. Moreover, activists have mobilized to demand material benefits, in the forms of royalty distributions and direct company investment in local services and infrastructure. These conflicts take the form of legal battles, large-scale protests, and standoffs that pit communities against companies and the state, and consequently have suspended production, destabilized politics, and expended state security resources. In The Politics of Extraction , Maiah Jaskoski looks at how mobilized communities in Latin America's hydrocarbon and mining regions use participatory institutions to challenge extraction. In some cases, communities act within formal participatory spaces, while in others, they organize "around" or "in reaction to" these institutions, using participatory procedures as focal points in the escalation of conflict. Based on analysis of thirty major extractive conflicts in Bolivia, Colombia, and Peru in the 2000s and 2010s, Jaskoski examines community uses of public hearings built into environmental licensing, state-led prior consultation with native communities affected by large-scale development, and local popular consultations or referenda. She finds that communities select their strategies in response to the specific participatory challenges they confront: the trials of initiating participatory processes, gaining inclusion in participatory events, and, for communities with such access, expressing views about extraction at the participatory stage. Surprisingly, the communities least likely to channel their concerns through state institutions are the most unified and have the strongest guarantee of participation. Including a wealth of data and complex stories, Jaskoski provides the first systematic study of how participatory institutions either channel or exacerbate conflict over extraction. Mining and hydrocarbon production in Latin America is high-stakes for extractive firms, communities in resource-rich zones, and states. Amid global commodity price increases and liberal economic policies, the sectors have expanded dramatically in recent decades. This surge has made private investors and governments in the region ever more committed to extraction. It also has increased alarm within local communities, which have organized around the environmental, cultural, and social impacts of mining and hydrocarbons. Moreover, activists have mobilized to demand material benefits, in the forms of royalty distributions and direct company investment in local services and infrastructure. These conflicts take the form of legal battles, large-scale protests, and standoffs that pit communities against companies and the state, and consequently have suspended production, destabilized politics, and expended state security resources.In The Politics of Extraction, Maiah Jaskoski looks at how mobilized communities in Latin America's hydrocarbon and mining regions use participatory institutions to challenge extraction. In some cases, communities act within formal participatory spaces, while in others, they organize "around" or "in reaction to" these institutions, using participatory procedures as focal points in the escalation of conflict. Based on analysis of thirty major extractive conflicts in Bolivia, Colombia, and Peru in the 2000s and 2010s, Jaskoski examines community uses of public hearings built into environmental licensing, state-led prior consultation with native communities affected by large-scale development, and local popular consultations or referenda. She finds that communities select their strategies in response to the specific participatory challenges they confront: the trials of initiating participatory processes, gaining inclusion in participatory events, and, for communities with such access, expressing views about extraction at the participatory stage. Surprisingly, the communities least likely to channel their concerns through state institutions are the most unified and have the strongest guarantee of participation. Including a wealth of data and complex stories, Jaskoski provides the first systematic study of how participatory institutions either channel or exacerbate conflict over extraction. "In the face of new extraction, communities in Latin America's hydrocarbon and mining regions use participatory institutions powerfully. In some cases, communities act within the formal participatory spaces, while in others, they organized "around" or "in reaction to" the institutions, using participatory procedures as focal points for escalating conflict. Communities select their strategies in response to the participatory challenges they confront. Those challenges are associated with contestation over the boundaries that determine access to participatory institutions. Contestation over the line between subnational authority vis-à-vis central-state jurisdictions heightens communities' challenge of initiating a participatory process. Disagreement over the territorial delineation of communities impacted by planned extraction creates for formally non-impacted communities the challenge of gaining inclusion in participatory events. Finally, disputes over the boundary that sets representatives of an affected community apart from the community at large intensify the community's challenge of conveying a position on extraction. This analysis of thirty major extractive conflicts in Bolivia, Colombia, and Peru in the 2000s and 2010s examines community uses of public hearings built into environmental licensing, state-led prior consultations with native communities, and local popular consultations, or referenda"-- Provided by publisher In the face of new extraction, communities in Latin America's hydrocarbon and mining regions use participatory institutions to challenge extraction. In some cases, communities act within the formal participatory spaces, while in others, they organize "around" or "in reaction to" the institutions, using participatory procedures as a focal point for the escalation of conflict. Communities select their strategies in response to the participatory challenges they confront. Those challenges are associated with contestation over the boundaries that determine access to the participatory institutions. Contestation over the line between subnational authority vis-à-vis central-state jurisdictions heightens communities' challenge of initiating a participatory process. Disagreement over the territorial delineation of communities impacted by planned extraction creates the challenge of gaining inclusion in participatory events, for formally nonimpacted communities. Finally, disputes over the boundary that sets representatives of an affected community apart from the community at large intensify the community's challenge of conveying a position on extraction. This analysis of thirty major extractive conflicts in Bolivia, Colombia, and Peru in the 2000s and 2010s examines community uses of public hearings built into environmental licensing, state-led prior consultations with native communities, and local popular consultations, or referenda