GEOG 374 - Geographies of Extractive Capitalism

1 unit(s)

Our lives run on fossil fuels, minerals, and other natural resources that have been extracted in various locations across the Earth. Drawing on political ecology, this seminar examines how natural resource extraction has fueled and sustained global capitalism, in its multiple forms and historical phases. Resource extraction has transformed both political and physical landscapes in various regions, and it has had destructive effects on the biophysical and geological properties of Earth. Reading geographical, anthropological, and political ecology texts on mining and fossil fuel extraction, we explore how scholars have theorized these relationships and the possibility of creating different ways of living. Topics include silver mining and the Spanish Empire, fossil fuels and industrialization, extractive states’ practices of sovereignty and territorial control, Indigenous rights and environmental justice movements, labor, the “resource curse,” and recent moves toward Corporate Social Responsibility and environmental sustainability.

One 3-hour period.

Not offered in 2019/20.

Course Format: CLS