Course 29/6 Gavin Bridge
- 1. economy value capitalism nature modernity conflict energy justice extractive resources accumulation 20 th century social relations natural gas time space claims appropriation substitution wind power governance tin oil resource curse finance A Political Ecology of Energy and Mining Dr Gavin Bridge University of Manchester metabolism
- 2. Deep Water Horizon extraction acts up – exposes set of social relations working conditions access/’frontier’ revenue, rent and regulation ecological costs materialities of oil and gas and hides others structural dependence of U.S. on overseas extraction ‘ normal’ displacement of oil’s ecological and social costs
- 3. Source: Bridge G. 2008. Journal of Economic Geography
- 5. Further out, deeper down active leases in GoM, by water depth Data from MMS (2004)
- 6. the return of resources spectre of scarcity: peak oil, gas, everything new materials and sites of struggle (rare earths, lithium, biofuels, wind, tidal, LNG) resources for the ‘green economy’ persistent themes coal and oil disasters (China, US) extra-territorial resource access (resources and imperialism) alternatives to extraction Ecuador’s ‘oil in the soil’ proposal El Salvador’s open pit proposals renegotiation of social contract around extraction and development EITI, EIR (World Bank), Kimberley, ‘clean gold’ energy transition a good time for a political ecology of energy and mining!
- 7. in the remainder of this talk…. resources as social relations energy and minerals as more than holes in the ground de-centre the point of extraction how does capital accumulation work in nature-facing sectors? land, time, and form exploration, production and exchange
- 8. resources as social relations mineral commodity chain wages and working conditions environmental damage costs resource access land use conversion price, consumer health and safety revenue management (rent and profit)
- 9. more than a hole in the ground extraction – economic, physical, thermodynamic ‘ time and space work differently in the extractive sector’ (Bunker) nature-facing industries (Prudham) land, time, form
- 10. extraction: dreams of development alchemy: a metaphor for resource-based development ‘ gold’ from dirt powerful rhetoric of modernisation via resource development unlocking the treasure chest liberating natural wealth encourages extractive peripheries failed modernisation creates wealth but not modernity resource curse ‘ devil’s excrement’
- 11. exploration: ‘buried treasure’ ‘ treasure hunt’ invisible discontinuous in space and variable in quality segregation low-volume/hi-value vs. hi-volume/low value uncertainties regarding scale/quality at outset ‘ spectacular accumulation’ (Anna Tsing on gold) ‘ inorganic and inedible’ (Lewis Mumford on coal) value lies in the abstract and speculative rather than in potential for direct sustenance Land ….. Time…..Form
- 12. access and control spatial monopoly of access claims ‘rush’ (competition for access) but resources already embedded in territorial/sovereign formations prospecting and patent/claim ‘ discovery’ piracy/primitive accumulation i.e. ‘molecular’ (capital) vs. ‘territorial’ logics of power (Harvey) Land ….. Time…..Form
- 13. 5 Land ….. Time…..Form
- 14. Structural Adjustment Programme, 1988 Mining boom diamonds & gold gold production up 10x 20% GDP, 25% exports Claims rush
- 16. production: nature-facing industries oil, gas, minerals are classic ‘gifts of nature’ non-produced goods, fictitious commodities (Polanyi) processes of production are geological, geophysical, hydrological. occur prior to the application of labour over non-human time-scales processes of production cannot be (fully) capitalised limited scope for ‘real subsumption’ of nature Land ….. Time …..Form
- 18. experiments with production time tar sands – substituting capital and energy for geological time EROI is low, but produces liquid fuel ‘ upgrades’ an unconventional oil unconventional oils complicate assertion of ‘peak’ oil plateau vs. peak highlight the importance of thinking about any peak as socially-determined not geological destiny peak demand vs. peak supply Land ….. Time …..Form
- 19. nature as form ‘ treadmill of production’ commodity sector (fungible), competition on price drawing on non-renewable materials of declining quality ‘ auto-consumptive’, local depletion: production undermines conditions of future profitability (ecological contradiction) costs will rise unless technological/institutional innovation economies of scale (bigger, deeper, further away) cost-shifting (displaced downstream, downwind, downtime) Land….. Time ….. Form
- 20. economies of scale and the diseconomies/costs of space ‘ transport systems function as increasingly capital-intensive, debt-creating, state-forming instruments to articulate dispersed site-specific raw material sources with concentrated centres of industrial production, capital accumulation, and political power’ Bunker and Ciccantell 2005: 15
- 21. “ In order to take account of space as materially differentiated and matter as spatially differentiated, we must incorporate topography, geology, hydrology, and climate, as well as absolute and geographic distances between places….into our analysis of how trade-dominant nations assure cheap and stable access to the volumes and types of materials they need” Bunker and Ciccantell 2005: 8
- 22. 4
- 23. nature as form modes of extraction: mining vs. agriculture both extractive (LeBillon), but mining and oil are high rent, low employment agriculture/plantations are low rent, high employment resource curse, weak linkages
- 24. economy value capitalism nature modernity conflict energy justice extractive resources accumulation 20 th century social relations natural gas time space claims appropriation substitution wind power governance tin oil resource curse finance A Political Ecology of Energy and Mining Dr Gavin Bridge University of Manchester metabolism
Editor's Notes
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