TY - JOUR
T1 - Extraction, entanglements, and (im)materialities
T2 - Reflections on the methods and methodologies of natural resource industries fieldwork
AU - Johnson, Organizing Editors Adrienne
AU - Zalik, Anna
AU - Mollett, Contributors Sharlene
AU - Sultana, Farhana
AU - Havice, Elizabeth
AU - Osborne, Tracey
AU - Valdivia, Gabriela
AU - Lu, Flora
AU - Billo, Emily
N1 - Funding Information:
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The co-editors received financial support from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada, York Canada 150 fund, and York University.
Funding Information:
The co-editors and contributors wish to thank the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada, York Canada 150, and the Faculty of Environmental Studies (York University) for funding the Mediating (Im)Materialities workshop held at York in December 2017. Our deepest thanks to Camila Bonifaz and York's Centre for Research on Latin America and the Caribbean for administrative and logistical assistance. We would also like to express special thanks to all authors for their contributions, and Dr. Rhodante Ahlers, Dr. Dayna Scott, and several graduate students for their participation in the workshop. Much appreciation goes to Dr Leila Harris for her editorial assistance as well as the three anonymous reviewers who reviewed this collection for EPE. The preparation and publication of this special section also overlapped with the passing of Dr Leslie Wirpsa whose courageous journalism and scholarship provided an example for much contemporary research on extractive industry. Conversations one of the co-editors (Zalik) had with Leslie partially inspired this project; thus we remember her here.
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2020.
PY - 2021/6
Y1 - 2021/6
N2 - This multi-authored collection of papers examines the complex realities of research on natural resource industries, including the messy entanglements of extraction, materiality, and everyday social life this research entails. Of central importance to the contributors is how scholars confront fieldwork challenges ethically, methodologically, and corporeally. The collection has two key objectives. First, it expands our understanding of extractive industry by bringing together work on resources conventionally understood as extractive (e.g. oil and minerals) alongside resource-intensive industries not typically examined through an extractive lens, for instance fisheries, agricultural monocultures, water, and tourism. As such, it considers the historical and current conditions that facilitate the extraction of resources in parallel, cyclical, and reproducing forms. Second, the collection examines scholarly positionalities, methodologies, and dilemmas that arise when studying nature-intensive industries, including the extractive dimensions associated with social research itself. Together, the pieces argue that research concerning extractive industries entails multiple scholarly positions—positions problematically inflected with colonialism and always shaped by power relations. Contributors to the section draw largely from feminist, postcolonial, anti-racist, and historical materialist insights to frame and problematize the corporeal and representational concerns arising from their scholarship on nature-intensive industries, including personal dilemmas that they have encountered in their work. Overall, the collection is driven by the realization that research, and the analyses it entails, may serve as a tool for emancipatory intervention yet also reproduce inequality. The futures of the people and ecosystems at the center of our studies impel constant reflection so that our work, and that of the next generation of scholars, may offer critical analysis that contributes to transforming—rather than reinforcing—oppressive relations associated with extractive sectors and industries.
AB - This multi-authored collection of papers examines the complex realities of research on natural resource industries, including the messy entanglements of extraction, materiality, and everyday social life this research entails. Of central importance to the contributors is how scholars confront fieldwork challenges ethically, methodologically, and corporeally. The collection has two key objectives. First, it expands our understanding of extractive industry by bringing together work on resources conventionally understood as extractive (e.g. oil and minerals) alongside resource-intensive industries not typically examined through an extractive lens, for instance fisheries, agricultural monocultures, water, and tourism. As such, it considers the historical and current conditions that facilitate the extraction of resources in parallel, cyclical, and reproducing forms. Second, the collection examines scholarly positionalities, methodologies, and dilemmas that arise when studying nature-intensive industries, including the extractive dimensions associated with social research itself. Together, the pieces argue that research concerning extractive industries entails multiple scholarly positions—positions problematically inflected with colonialism and always shaped by power relations. Contributors to the section draw largely from feminist, postcolonial, anti-racist, and historical materialist insights to frame and problematize the corporeal and representational concerns arising from their scholarship on nature-intensive industries, including personal dilemmas that they have encountered in their work. Overall, the collection is driven by the realization that research, and the analyses it entails, may serve as a tool for emancipatory intervention yet also reproduce inequality. The futures of the people and ecosystems at the center of our studies impel constant reflection so that our work, and that of the next generation of scholars, may offer critical analysis that contributes to transforming—rather than reinforcing—oppressive relations associated with extractive sectors and industries.
KW - Extraction
KW - engagement
KW - feminist political ecology
KW - research methods and methodologies
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85132317912&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85132317912&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/2514848620907470
DO - 10.1177/2514848620907470
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85132317912
SN - 2514-8486
VL - 4
SP - 383
EP - 428
JO - Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space
JF - Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space
IS - 2
ER -