This episode we are joined by Dr. Tom Maraffa a retired professor from Youngstown State University which is a public university in Youngstown, Ohio. We explore Extractivism and sense of place from small town USA and how extractive activities have influenced the history and lived experience in Columbiana County in Ohio. This county serves as a case study of a place that has undergone change as extractive activities and the global economy have evolved around it. Many of the local companies that were foundational to this area have been absorbed by international companies, reducing them to easily movable pieces in a game of globalization. The people and counties left behind were forced to find alternatives . However, sometimes the alternatives are other forms of extractive activities, for example, moving from coal mining to natural gas. It is easy to cast judgement on areas where these types of extractive activities are taking place, however, we explore the role of place and place attachment and the value systems which might be at play in Columbiana County. We think about the role of people who feel “placelessness” v. “placed” and the impact these worldviews have on an area and the bigger picture of the world to which they connect.

Links shared by Dr. Maraffa (please note some of the newspaper links do not work in Europe due to GDPR).

Chris Arnade—Front Row/Back Row (exploring “placedness” and “placelessness”)

Stories about Columbiana County to contextualize the place.

Extractive activities and the community in Ohio.

This podcast episode is groundbreaking for the EXALT Podcast. It is our first episode with two guests, but also our first multi-lingual podcast – whether you are listening to the English version, the Spanish version, or the original – we hope that you enjoy! This is the English version with the translation imposed over the original Spanish segments.

We talked today with Katy Machoa and Paola Minoia. Katy is a Clinical Psychologist from the Kichwa Community of Shamato, part of the Amazonian Kichwa nationality. Paola is a Senior university lecturer in development studies in the Faculty of Social Science, and an adjunct professor in development geography at the Faculty of Sciences, both at the University of Helsinki. We talked to these guests together because they are co-collaborators on an Academy of Finland funded project based in Ecuador on called Goal 4+: Including Eco-cultural Pluralism in Quality Education in Ecuadorian Amazonia. “This project expands on Sustainable Development Goal 4, which aims to ensure quality education for all through an attempt to promote recognition of eco-cultural pluralism and inclusion of indigenous pedagogies and knowledges as part of quality education in Ecuadorian Amazonia.” If you are interested in learning more about this interesting and important project please visit their project website and blog https://blogs.helsinki.fi/ecocultures-ecuador/.

In this conversation we talked about Katy’s lived experiences in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Through this conversation we talk about indigenous communities, the trajectory of “development” in this region, the types of extraction which are happening in these lands, and the role of epistemological plurality in creating space for indigenous knowledge.

The resources which Katy highlighted in the episode:

This podcast episode is groundbreaking for the EXALT Podcast. It is our first episode with two guests, but also our first multi-lingual podcast – whether you are listening to the English version, the Spanish version, or the original – we hope that you enjoy! Esta es la versión en español, sin traducción al inglés.

We talked today with Katy Machoa and Paola Minoia. Katy is a Clinical Psychologist from the Kichwa Community of Shamato, part of the Amazonian Kichwa nationality. Paola is a Senior university lecturer in development studies in the Faculty of Social Science, and an adjunct professor in development geography at the Faculty of Sciences, both at the University of Helsinki. We talked to these guests together because they are co-collaborators on an Academy of Finland funded project based in Ecuador on called Goal 4+: Including Eco-cultural Pluralism in Quality Education in Ecuadorian Amazonia. “This project expands on Sustainable Development Goal 4, which aims to ensure quality education for all through an attempt to promote recognition of eco-cultural pluralism and inclusion of indigenous pedagogies and knowledges as part of quality education in Ecuadorian Amazonia.” If you are interested in learning more about this interesting and important project please visit their project website and blog https://blogs.helsinki.fi/ecocultures-ecuador/.

In this conversation we talked about Katy’s lived experiences in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Through this conversation we talk about indigenous communities, the trajectory of “development” in this region, the types of extraction which are happening in these lands, and the role of epistemological plurality in creating space for indigenous knowledge.

The resources which Katy highlighted in the episode:

This podcast episode is groundbreaking for the EXALT Podcast. It is our first episode with two guests, but also our first multi-lingual podcast – whether you are listening to the English version, the Spanish version, or the original – we hope that you enjoy! This is the original version with the full Spanish responses immediately followed by the translation.

We talked today with Katy Machoa and Paola Minoia. Katy is a Clinical Psychologist from the Kichwa Community of Shamato, part of the Amazonian Kichwa nationality. Paola is a Senior university lecturer in development studies in the Faculty of Social Science, and an adjunct professor in development geography at the Faculty of Sciences, both at the University of Helsinki. We talked to these guests together because they are co-collaborators on an Academy of Finland funded project based in Ecuador on called Goal 4+: Including Eco-cultural Pluralism in Quality Education in Ecuadorian Amazonia. “This project expands on Sustainable Development Goal 4, which aims to ensure quality education for all through an attempt to promote recognition of eco-cultural pluralism and inclusion of indigenous pedagogies and knowledges as part of quality education in Ecuadorian Amazonia.” If you are interested in learning more about this interesting and important project please visit their project website and blog https://blogs.helsinki.fi/ecocultures-ecuador/.

In this conversation we talked about Katy’s lived experiences in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Through this conversation we talk about indigenous communities, the trajectory of “development” in this region, the types of extraction which are happening in these lands, and the role of epistemological plurality in creating space for indigenous knowledge.

The resources which Katy highlighted in the episode:

Sanna Komi is a doctoral student at the University of Helsinki in Development Studies. Her research is part of the CONVIVA project which explores the concept of convivial conservation which offers an alternative to the model of conservation through capitalism. Sanna’s work within this project is specifically connected to wolf conservation in Finland and the attitudes towards wolf conservation. In general, her work concentrates on moving beyond the nature/society dichotomy and the model of conservation by commodification (i.e. conservation coming from a neoliberal point of view that seeks to extract something from nature by conserving it.) In this conversation we talk about apex predators, capitalism, values, and the role of extractivism in conservation.

Links:

Convivial Conservation: https://convivialconservation.com/

Büscher, Bram, and Robert Fletcher. "Towards convivial conservation." Conservation & Society 17, no. 3 (2019): 283-296. http://www.conservationandsociety.org/article.asp?issn=0972-4923;year=2019;volume=17;issue=3;spage=283;epage=296;aulast=B

Luonto-Liitto (The Finnish Nature League): http://www.luontoliitto.fi/en

Luonto-Liitton Susiryhmä (The Wolf Action Group from the Finnish Nature League): http://www.luontoliitto.fi/susiryhma/in-english

The webpages of the Finnish Game Institute: https://riista.fi/ (homepage – in Finnish); https://riista.fi/riistatalous/riistakannat/hoitosuunnitelmat/susikanta/ (wolf opinion page – in Finnish); other resources available in English via the search function at https://riista.fi/en/

This month we are joined by Maria Ehrnström-Fuentes, postdoctoral researcher from Hanken School of Economics. Together we take a deep dive into the pluriverse and how Maria has explored this concept in her research. This conversation covers ideas of decoloniality, degrowth, and turning a critical eye to some of the established notions of how research is conducted. Maria shares her experiences in conducting research in Latin America and the Finnish countryside. The conversation comes around to the deep importance of finding like-minded people in your community as a step toward change.

If you want to find out more about Maria and her work here is a link to her researcher profile. 

Here are two of her most recent articles:

Ehrnström-Fuentes, M & Leipämaa-Leskinen, H 2019, 'Boundary Negotiations in a Self-Organized Grassroots-Led Food Network: The Case of REKO in Finland', Sustainability, vol. 11, no. 15, 4137, pp. 1-22. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11154137

Ehrnström-Fuentes, M 2019, 'Confronting extractivism: the role of local struggles in the (un)making of place', Critical Perspectives on International Business. https://doi.org/10.1108/cpoib-01-2018-0016

And a link to her doctoral thesis Legitimacy in the Pluriverse: Towards an Expanded View on Corporate-Community Relations in the Global Forestry Industry

This episode we sit down with Dr. Aili Pyhälä, lecturer in Development Studies at the University of Helsinki. She takes inside her more than 20 years of work as an activist and a researcher in indigenous and other communities facing the threat of extractivist practice. She shares with us her stories and lived experiences from the field. We explore the gray area between extractivisms and alternatives and look at extractivism as an alternative when it is in the right hands. She also shares with us her thoughts on decolonizing academia and how research projects can and should be designed.

Read more about Aili’s academic work https://www.helsinki.fi/en/people/people-finder/aili-pyhala-9131642

The organizations Aili highlighted:

· The ICCA Consortium - https://www.iccaconsortium.org/

· Centre for Indigenous Conservation and Development Alternatives (CICADA) - http://cicada.world/

· Global Ecovillage Network - https://ecovillage.org/

In the third and final part of our conversation with Professor Barry Gills from University of Helsinki and one of the founders of the Global Extractivisms and Alternatives (EXALT) initiative, we talk about the need for action on a personal and political level to face the challenges presented by the climate emergency, trying to find balance between the comforts of modern society and environmental conscientiousness, the impact and evolution of community in the digital age, and examples of alternatives.  

If you are interested to read more about the academic conversations we explore in this episode, please check out Globalizations, which is the journal that Prof. Gills founded and is the current editor-in-chief.

In the second part of our conversation with Professor Barry Gills from University of Helsinki and one of the founders of the Global Extractivisms and Alternatives (EXALT) initiative, we discuss local and indigenous approaches to solving problems, the issue of "externalities" in economics (a cost of producing something that is taken from external parties that did not choose to incur that cost - for example, a lithium mine might severely poison a body of water, creating knock-on effects for local people and wildlife, those costs are not factored into the cost of a lithium battery), and vulnerability and global justice as they relate to global scale extractivist practice. Finally, we explore three concepts to live by - be radical, be responsible, be restorative.

If you are interested to read more about the academic conversations we explore in this episode, please check out Globalizations, which is the journal that Prof. Gills founded and is the current editor-in-chief.

Professor Barry Gills from University of Helsinki joins us for a conversation about the Global Extractivisms and Alternatives (EXALT) initiative, the meaning of extractivism and the role of alternatives, the conceptualization of nature, values as connected to modernity, and the crisis of our global civilization. We have divided this conversation into three parts. This is a rich intellectual journey and serves as a robust introduction to the thinking which inspired the EXALT Initiative.

If you are interested to read more about the academic conversations we explore in this episode, please check out Globalizations, which is the journal that Prof. Gills founded and is the current editor-in-chief.