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Contesting a new wave of green extractivism in Europe: How can the degrowth movement support anti-mining struggles on the ground?

In summer 2021, we conducted ethnographic field research in a rural area in northern Portugal to investigate the anti-mining movement around a proposed mining project. The mine is projected to be essential to Europe's energy transition by becoming the biggest open-pit lithium mine in western Europe. Despite the promises of several benefits, most residents fear that the mine will destroy their natural environment and undermine alternative aspirations for the region’s development. Opponents have been contesting the development of the mining project by forming a grassroot organisation that has organised various campaigns and protests and mobilised national and transnational alliances to halt the project.
The paper explores how residents engage in the politics of anticipation around the mine. We argue that creating new sacrifice zones in the name of the green economy will impede efforts for genuine sustainability transformations, a matter which represents a core concern of both degrowth activists and anti-mining coalitions. Counter-movements like the ones in Portugal are gaining increasing public attention in Europe, thereby driving discourses around the need to transform our economy radically. Rethinking economic relations in a way that human needs are met while social injustices are being mitigated and planetary boundaries respected is a challenge that deeply connects these movements.
In this presentation, we wish to share what we learnt about the growing European anti-mining network and its connection to degrowth ideas. We encourage discussing challenges and potentials to forge alliances between anti-mining activists and degrowth advocates. While our focus will be on anti-mining resistance within Europe, we propose linking this discussion to how people fighting environmental injustices worldwide can join forces and engage in alliance-formation to promote genuine and effective sustainability transformations.

Info

Day: 2023-08-30
Start time: 12:30
Duration: 00:15
Room: ZV-KC-2
Type: Paper Presentation
Theme: Resilience building through degrowth

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