Browsing by Subject "extractivism"

Uganda’s recent oil discoveries have been described as one of the largest onshore findings in Africa within the past 20 years. It has been estimated that there are 6.5 billion barrels of oil in the Albertine Graben, of which about 1.4 are recoverable. Since the foreign and national stakeholders have launched their oil investment projects, concerns around human and environmental rights violations have been raised internally and internationally. Whereas much scientific work has been produced on oil in Africa, most of this can be placed under the concise umbrella of resource blessing and resource curse. The approach of ‘extractivism’ has come to challenge this simplistic dichotomy, but most of the work about extractivism focuses on Latin America. This thesis, thus, contributes to this growing body of literature. It does so by investigating the discourses that the Ugandan state and the transnational corporation TotalEnergies utilize to promote extractivism in Uganda. More specifically, this thesis aims to answer two questions, namely, what justification methods does the Ugandan state use to legitimate oil extractivism in the Lake Albertine region, and how does the oil corporation Total reproduce narratives of extractivist mindset in legitimizing its operations in the Albertine Graben? Data were collected from policy documents, newspaper articles, and website material. The methods of critical discourse analysis and content analysis and the approaches of extractivism and postcolonialism are applied. The findings show that the Ugandan state legitimates oil through five discourses, namely: economic arguments, employment and social arguments, no substantial ecological effects arguments; statements for energy poverty, energy security, and just transition; and stigmatizing critics arguments. Total uses three distinct discourses, namely, self-regulation and best practice, social and developmental arguments, and no substantial ecological effects arguments. These discourses, while reproducing the extractivist mindset, should be taken seriously as they have severe implications for the wider world.

Despite active Indigenous movement in the country, Ecuadorian governments have continued to exploit natural resources with increasing speed legitimising extractivism as a means to social development. Indigenous women are gradually taking leadership positions in the predominantly male-dominant Indigenous movement in Ecuador, and Amazonian Indigenous women have strengthened ties with other groups as well. The research questions of this thesis participate in the post-developmentalist discussion on extractivism and alternatives, resistance and finding solidarities to fight against subordination and destruction of territories, knowledge, culture, bodies and life. Drawing from feminist political ecology’s critical decolonial and intersectional feminist perspective, the thesis analyses, what “truths” the Ecuadorian state is creating about development, Indigenous peoples and their territories, and what the possible implications to Amazonian Indigenous women are. It is also interested in what strategies Indigenous women use to resist the extractive policies justified with those “truths”, and what kind of spaces of resistance they are creating. By doing this, the thesis tries to answer, how Ecuador’s extractive policies affect eco-cultural pluralism in Ecuadorian Amazonia. The main method for analysis is a Foucauldian strand of critical discourse analysis, complemented with elements of qualitative content analysis. The primary data collected for this thesis consists of government development plans and official communication, as well as of a report, statements and social media publications by Indigenous organisations and collectives. In Ecuadorian governmental discourses further expansion of extractivism(s) is still justified with economic and social development, especially in the areas of impact. What is new in the governmental discourses is the wide dismissal of Indigenous peoples’ existence and conceptualisations of “good living”. Dismissing topics, such as Indigenous peoples’ rights to their territories, and discrediting Indigenous knowledge suggests that citizen participation and eco-cultural pluralism are supported only as far as they do not threaten the development of strategic sectors of the state. Amazonian Indigenous women resist extractivism with multiple strategies. They are building solidarities by establishing alliances with ecofeminist groups, international environmental NGOs and human rights organisations. By tying their ethno-territorial demands into global climate and social justice discourses Indigenous women are opening a shared space able to mobilise larger crowds for their cause. Thus, while making visible the embodied impacts of patriarchal extractivism, Indigenous women are also simultaneously decolonising feminism. Although hegemonic government discourses embrace nationalist imaginaries and identities related to extractivisms, the resistance of Amazonian Indigenous women may cultivate common ground of understanding with the rest of the Ecuadorian society and international community.