Theorizing the subterranean mode of production

Matthew T. Huber

doi:10.1016/j.polgeo.2022.102601

Theorizing the subterranean mode of production

Matthew T. Huber

Department of Geography and the Environment

Research output: Contribution to journal › Comment/Debate/Erratum › peer-review

1 Scopus citations

Original language	English (US)
Article number	102601
Journal	Political Geography
Volume	94
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2022.102601
State	Published - Apr 2022

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Geography, Planning and Development
History
Sociology and Political Science

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10.1016/j.polgeo.2022.102601

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@article{b331577184f247039842fcbb2dc9f614,

title = "Theorizing the subterranean mode of production",

author = "Huber, {Matthew T.}",

note = "Funding Information: This critique of the concept of resources extends to broader scales of “resource nationalism.” Marston (2019, p. 8) powerfully argues that, “… Bolivian resource nationalism … is undergirded by knowledge and institutions that are inherently inhospitable to Indigenous autonomy.” Although the article is historical it appears this also applies to the more contemporary resource nationalism of Evo Morales and his party, the Movement for socialism (Movimiento al Socialismo) (Marston and Himley (2021, p. 2) refer to “injustices” under Morales as “particularly jarring” in the issue's introduction). I would caution against such easy denunciation of what is also considered a quite successful left party formation in both overcoming the tide of neoliberalism and building mass popular support (Forster, 2020). Indeed, it was mass Indigenous support for MAS – along with social protest against the coup regime installed in 2019 – that returned them to power in October 2020 (Fabricant, 2020). As Cindy Forster (2020) explains in Jacobin, mass movements laid the basis for the October elections: “During weeks of protest at the start of August [2020], indigenous campesinos and the urban poor put into practice the strategies they had forged since the early twenty-first century, when social movements shut down Bolivia and opened the path to a more democratic country.” There is no question Morales and MAS relied on an exploitative form of extractivism that burned bridges with several Indigenous movements and fractured their social base (McNelly, 2021), but it is also fair to ask, given the imperial world system, what economic options MAS had to deliver mass social benefits to a population suffering from decades of austerity? The remarkable reductions in poverty – falling from 59.9% in 2006 to 34.6% in 2017 (Balch, 2019) – achieved by Morales and his party likely enhanced Indigenous autonomy in other ways. Resource nationalist redistribution might just be the least worst option available to left leaders in the Global South.",

year = "2022",

month = apr,

doi = "10.1016/j.polgeo.2022.102601",

language = "English (US)",

volume = "94",

journal = "Political Geography",

issn = "0962-6298",

publisher = "Elsevier",

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T1 - Theorizing the subterranean mode of production

AU - Huber, Matthew T.

N1 - Funding Information: This critique of the concept of resources extends to broader scales of “resource nationalism.” Marston (2019, p. 8) powerfully argues that, “… Bolivian resource nationalism … is undergirded by knowledge and institutions that are inherently inhospitable to Indigenous autonomy.” Although the article is historical it appears this also applies to the more contemporary resource nationalism of Evo Morales and his party, the Movement for socialism (Movimiento al Socialismo) (Marston and Himley (2021, p. 2) refer to “injustices” under Morales as “particularly jarring” in the issue's introduction). I would caution against such easy denunciation of what is also considered a quite successful left party formation in both overcoming the tide of neoliberalism and building mass popular support (Forster, 2020). Indeed, it was mass Indigenous support for MAS – along with social protest against the coup regime installed in 2019 – that returned them to power in October 2020 (Fabricant, 2020). As Cindy Forster (2020) explains in Jacobin, mass movements laid the basis for the October elections: “During weeks of protest at the start of August [2020], indigenous campesinos and the urban poor put into practice the strategies they had forged since the early twenty-first century, when social movements shut down Bolivia and opened the path to a more democratic country.” There is no question Morales and MAS relied on an exploitative form of extractivism that burned bridges with several Indigenous movements and fractured their social base (McNelly, 2021), but it is also fair to ask, given the imperial world system, what economic options MAS had to deliver mass social benefits to a population suffering from decades of austerity? The remarkable reductions in poverty – falling from 59.9% in 2006 to 34.6% in 2017 (Balch, 2019) – achieved by Morales and his party likely enhanced Indigenous autonomy in other ways. Resource nationalist redistribution might just be the least worst option available to left leaders in the Global South.

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SN - 0962-6298

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Theorizing the subterranean mode of production

ASJC Scopus subject areas

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