Ksenija Hanaček is a researcher at the Autonomous University of Barcelona’s Institute of Environmental Science and Technology (ICTA, UAB), Spain. Ksenija works for the Global Atlas of Environmental Justice (EJAtlas). Recently, she has collaborated with Markus Kröger at the University of Helsinki, looking at extractive projects and resistance to extractive projects in the Arctic. We talked about extractive economies in the Arctic, particularly investments that are coming from outside the Arctic itself, in particular China. Ksenija told us about the Arctic Silk Road and the types of commodities that are being taken out of the Arctic. There is a huge variety in the types of resources that are being extracted from the Arctic—it is not only about oil and natural gas! Ksenija reminds us to continue to question the solutions that powerful actors suggest and to keep a critical eye out for the false solutions. 

Check out her bio at ICTA, UAB http://www.envjustice.org/2020/03/ksenija-hanacek/ 

Global Atlas of Environmental Justice (EJAtlas) https://ejatlas.org/

This bonus episode of extractivism in pop culture is in honour of the three-year anniversary of the EXALT podcast. We are very excited to be joined again by Jesse Barber from the University of Helsinki Folklore Studies. In this bonus episode we explore J. R. R. Tolkien’s series, Lord of the Rings (LoTR) and how it relates to themes like modernity, industrialism, capitalism, war, and of course extractivism. We talk across the various iterations of LoTRs, including the books, Peter Jackson’s movie series, and the more recently released Amazon Prime series, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, which takes place in the same universe, but several thousands of years before the events depicted in the LoTRs books/movies. We are not experts, but we have all interacted with the LoTRs to differing degrees over a long period of time. We talk about how we got into the series, what they mean for us, and then relate them to themes in the realm of extractivism. So, if you have ever wanted to think about how the rise of Sauron relates to the rise of industrialism and how the Ents represent wider nature—then this episode is for you!!

Disclaimer!!! This episode is full of spoilers—so if you are not already familiar with the Lord of the Rings universe and you do not want to know about the story—turn off the pod now!!

Interested to learn more about the LoTRs? Check out this fandom page which lays it all out clearly. https://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/The_Lord_of_the_Rings

This month on the podcast we are excited to present a conversation that is a bit outside our normal topics! This conversation is with Jesse Barber, a doctoral researcher in Folklore Studies in the Department of Cultures at the University of Helsinki. His research explores the continuity between pre-Christian Scandinavian religions and the folklore written later in Scandinavian countries. He specifically pays attention to similarities in cosmological timelines, i.e., conceptions of the past, present, and future of the world. He gives us some insight into the folklore itself, how it came to be, and what it says about the worldview. We explore how these myths and folk legends have had a role in developing a national cultural identity, and even in the process of nation building. We discuss the Christianization of Scandinavia and some of the trade reasons that the Kings of Scandinavia would be interested in imposing a top-down conversion. We even touch on these stories and their ultramodern adaptation (appropriation?) into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Check out Jesse’s profile here.

This month we were delighted to be joined by fellow University of Helsinki, Global Development Studies doctoral researcher, Usman Ashraf. Usman moved from the natural sciences to the social sciences and his research focuses on Chinese investment in Pakistan’s forestry sector. In particular we talked about the Billion Tree Tsunami Afforestation project and the subsequent 10 Billion Tree Tsunami Afforestation project. We touched on the landscape changes that attend this kind of project and the impacts that these projects have on the human and other than human beings in the affected areas. He gives us insight into how the implementation of the plantations this project has specifically impacted the herding families in the area and other landless families. Our conversation undercovers the political implications of this “environmental” project and how the current narratives/processes are historically connected.

Find and connect with Usman on Twitter @PEusman

Usman’s recommended reading The Nutmeg’s Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisis by Amitav Ghosh (University of Chicago Press)

Check out the IIED Country report Usman recently wrote on this project. Ashraf, U. (2022) 'Participation and Exclusion in Mega Tree-planting Projects: A Case Study of the Ten Billion Tree Tsunami Programme, Pakistan,' London: IIED. https://opendocs.ids.ac.uk/opendocs/handle/20.500.12413/17511

This month we are excited to present an in-depth conversation with Professor Sérgio Sauer, who works at University of Brasilia in Brazil and is a visiting scholar at University of Helsinki in Finland. We explored the landscape of land struggles in Brazil and how extractivism and social conflict has shaped Brazil. He started his career on the ground at an agricultural frontier and has worked extensively with the Brazilian Landless Workers Movement (MST) and questions of justice for rural inhabitants. Sérgio gives us a historically informed view of how Brazil’s agricultural geography has developed over the last 60 years. In addition, he traces out the interplay of scholarship and activism and how this plays out in resistance to extractivism.

You can also find Sérgio on Twitter @SergioSauerUnB, and please also check out the Observatório Matopiba.

Sérgio recommends that if you are interested in the themes discussed in this episode to check out the film “The Burning Season”, which tell a story of real-life activist Chico Mendes, who was murdered in the 80s for his work.

This month we were joined by two exciting guests, Syed Mustafa Ali from The Open University in the UK and Dan McQuillan from Goldsmiths, University of London. They are both interested in AI, technology, and applying a critical lens to the development of digital infrastructures and applications. They met at the Histories of AI Seminar at Cambridge University and found common ground through what could be described as Luddite orientation. It was this connection over Luddism that brought them together to have a cup of coffee and share ideas and a bit of subversive thought about the history and trajectory of AI. This conversation teases out what Luddism is in a historical sense and how it continues to play out today. We talk about the physical extractivisms associated with the architecture and infrastructure of digital space and the mental and power relations of algorithmization. We explore the form of resistance and intervention to digital extractivisms and the rollout of layers of digital infrastructures that extend and expand the colonial project.

Dan’s book Resisting AI: An Anti-fascist Approach to Artificial Intelligence will be release officially on July 15, 2022, preorder your copy today!

Find and follow Dan (@danmcquillan) and Mustafa (@DrSyedMustafaA1) on Twitter

This month we are thrilled to be joined by Tim Oakes, who is a Professor of Geography at the University of Colorado Boulder. He is a human, social, and cultural geographer and his research focuses on Southwest China and the techno-political effects of infrastructural urbanism in China’s ‘new area’ urban zones. Needless to say, there have been a lot of developmental changes in China since Tim visited for the first time in the 1980s. Tim gives us insight into his career trajectory and his roots in rural geography and the ways in which the countryside has come into the 21st century. A huge facet of the countryside development is through infrastructure, and he realized that urbanization does not just happen in cities as urbanization occurs also in place. We explored many aspects of capitalist development and how it affects and is affected by the Chinese countryside. If you are interested to learn more about Tim’s work, check out the website of the China Made project and his amazing keynote speech at the Finnish Society for Development Reseacher’s Development Days Conference. You can also find Tim on Twitter @TS_Oakes.

This month we are joined by Gediminas Lesutis, a Marie Curie Fellow at University of Amsterdam. This rich and wide-ranging conversation starts with how Gedis got started in fieldwork driven research in Sub-Saharan Africa, and especially in Mozambique. We discussed land-grabbing, precarity, and the destructive, real-life impacts of dispossession in the epicenter of the extractive boom in contemporary Mozambique. Specifically, we got insights into the on the ground experience of being with people who are so intimately affected by the actions of extractive expansion. Recently, Gedis also joined EXALT to launch his newly published book, The Politics of Precarity: Spaces of Extractivism, Violence, and Suffering. If you would like to check out that great launch, it is available on the EXALT YouTube channel. If you would like to connect with Gedis and stay up to date on his research, please find him on Twitter @GediminasLe.

This month we were delighted to be joined on the podcast by Tania Murray Li. Dr. Li is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Toronto (). Her work explores questions of land, labor, class, capitalism, development, resources, and indigeneity. In this episode she gave us insight into her most recent co-authored book, Plantation Life: Corporate Occupation of Indonesia’s Oil Palm Zone, which was published in 2021 by Duke University Press. The conversation centers on the impacts to existences when plantations are established over existing landscapes. We got insights into the feel of the space on the plantation and the rhythms of life under plantation rule.

If you would like to hear more from Dr. Li and the impacts of infrastructural violence, she was recently a keynote speaker at the FSDR Development Days 2022 conference. Here is a link to her keynote speech. You can read more about Dr. Li’s work on her blog.

This month we are super excited to be joined by University of Helsinki World Politics professor Teivo Teivainen (researchportal.helsinki.fi/en/persons/…i-teivainen). In this vibrant and wide-ranging conversation, we talked with Teivo about his recent turn as a documentary film maker. Teivo has recently been in the Finnish Arctic and in Uruguay traveling along planned railway lines while reflecting on the concept of Finnish colonialism. The broader world might not immediately connect Finland and the concept of colonialism, however, Teivo brings forward some compelling arguments about Finnish actions on the world stage. Teivo’s work uncovers some of the differences between imaginaries and practice, especially in Finnish forestry and foreign investment in pulp milling. He urges people to pay more attention to corporate politics and the constellations of power that are found in corporate spaces, especially in relation to observing corporate elections. We should know who are running these companies because they have so much influence in the world.

If you want to interact with Teivo you can find him on Twitter and Instagram (both @TeivoTeivainen).