The Structures of Conquest: Debating Extractivism(s), Infrastructures and Environmental Justice for Advancing Post-Development Pathways

The green economy and ‘green growth’ are not solutions to ecological and climate catastrophe. The dominate trajectory of techno-industrial development has to be reconsidered and placed within ecological limits. The ‘social’, related to environmental and climate justice, tends towards subordinating t...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Alexander Dunlap
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Institut de Hautes Études Internationales et du Développement 2023-05-01
Series:Revue Internationale de Politique de Développement
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/poldev/5355
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1846131277750599680
author Alexander Dunlap
author_facet Alexander Dunlap
author_sort Alexander Dunlap
collection DOAJ
description The green economy and ‘green growth’ are not solutions to ecological and climate catastrophe. The dominate trajectory of techno-industrial development has to be reconsidered and placed within ecological limits. The ‘social’, related to environmental and climate justice, tends towards subordinating the ecological in the maintenance of modernist infrastructures, and thus towards breaking efforts to achieve socio-ecological harmony. The following examines the realities of resource extractivism, but also tensions within academic debates on these matters. This entails locating an important ‘grey area’ within these debates, which has significant implications for imagining pathways to address ecological and climate catastrophe. This grey area—questioning the difference between extractivism and industrialism—also persists within archetypal positions on land acquisition and shades of reform in environmental justice studies, and, to a lesser degree, in the (academic) decolonial literature. This chapter contends that environmental justice reinforces modernist development, necessitating and expanding extractivism and ecologically destructive infrastructures. By highlighting ambiguities in critical literatures, it seeks to provide political clarity, reinforcing personal and collective self-determination and, secondarily, to encourage public policy to begin taking climate catastrophe seriously.
format Article
id doaj-art-ca60d1f24fe043878307fc923e51d9e5
institution Kabale University
issn 1663-9375
1663-9391
language English
publishDate 2023-05-01
publisher Institut de Hautes Études Internationales et du Développement
record_format Article
series Revue Internationale de Politique de Développement
spelling doaj-art-ca60d1f24fe043878307fc923e51d9e52024-12-09T15:48:19ZengInstitut de Hautes Études Internationales et du DéveloppementRevue Internationale de Politique de Développement1663-93751663-93912023-05-011610.4000/poldev.5355The Structures of Conquest: Debating Extractivism(s), Infrastructures and Environmental Justice for Advancing Post-Development PathwaysAlexander DunlapThe green economy and ‘green growth’ are not solutions to ecological and climate catastrophe. The dominate trajectory of techno-industrial development has to be reconsidered and placed within ecological limits. The ‘social’, related to environmental and climate justice, tends towards subordinating the ecological in the maintenance of modernist infrastructures, and thus towards breaking efforts to achieve socio-ecological harmony. The following examines the realities of resource extractivism, but also tensions within academic debates on these matters. This entails locating an important ‘grey area’ within these debates, which has significant implications for imagining pathways to address ecological and climate catastrophe. This grey area—questioning the difference between extractivism and industrialism—also persists within archetypal positions on land acquisition and shades of reform in environmental justice studies, and, to a lesser degree, in the (academic) decolonial literature. This chapter contends that environmental justice reinforces modernist development, necessitating and expanding extractivism and ecologically destructive infrastructures. By highlighting ambiguities in critical literatures, it seeks to provide political clarity, reinforcing personal and collective self-determination and, secondarily, to encourage public policy to begin taking climate catastrophe seriously.https://journals.openedition.org/poldev/5355climate changerenewable energyneo-colonialinfrastructureenvironmental justicedevelopment
spellingShingle Alexander Dunlap
The Structures of Conquest: Debating Extractivism(s), Infrastructures and Environmental Justice for Advancing Post-Development Pathways
Revue Internationale de Politique de Développement
climate change
renewable energy
neo-colonial
infrastructure
environmental justice
development
title The Structures of Conquest: Debating Extractivism(s), Infrastructures and Environmental Justice for Advancing Post-Development Pathways
title_full The Structures of Conquest: Debating Extractivism(s), Infrastructures and Environmental Justice for Advancing Post-Development Pathways
title_fullStr The Structures of Conquest: Debating Extractivism(s), Infrastructures and Environmental Justice for Advancing Post-Development Pathways
title_full_unstemmed The Structures of Conquest: Debating Extractivism(s), Infrastructures and Environmental Justice for Advancing Post-Development Pathways
title_short The Structures of Conquest: Debating Extractivism(s), Infrastructures and Environmental Justice for Advancing Post-Development Pathways
title_sort structures of conquest debating extractivism s infrastructures and environmental justice for advancing post development pathways
topic climate change
renewable energy
neo-colonial
infrastructure
environmental justice
development
url https://journals.openedition.org/poldev/5355
work_keys_str_mv AT alexanderdunlap thestructuresofconquestdebatingextractivismsinfrastructuresandenvironmentaljusticeforadvancingpostdevelopmentpathways
AT alexanderdunlap structuresofconquestdebatingextractivismsinfrastructuresandenvironmentaljusticeforadvancingpostdevelopmentpathways