Extractivism, Conservation, Science and Justice: Workshopping Emerging Approaches in Decolonial Science

Session Submission Type: Traditional (Closed) Panel

Abstract

What can science studies offer researchers who need to respond to the appropriation of scientific expertise for the purposes of authorising political decisions that have destructive effects on people? What forms of scholarship could contest “ecological sciences” that make possible destructive interventions, programs, and policies? What do decolonial and postcolonial approaches bring to research that addresses the appropriation of scientific expertise for the purposes of authorising extractive and violent relationships within ecologies? What forms of scholarship could contest “ecological sciences” that make possible destructive interventions, programs and policies, without recreating “the science wars” of the past few decades ?
This panel brings together graduate researchers from Southern Africa, Guatemala and Chile to consider how to respond to the particular kinds of structural violence that attend interventions in “sacrifice zones”, including mining, conservation, water management and wind energy.
Our interest in framing this panel is to offer scholars who are new to science studies an opportunity to reflect collectively on strategies of a wide range of activists for responding to environmental governance science via deinstitutionalizing or counter-institutionalizing specific appropriations of science(s) that are recognized as unfair to communities and localities.

Sub Unit

• Closed Panels

Discussant

• Sebastian Ureta, Universidad Alberto Hurtado

Individual Presentations

• Human and non-human “undesirables” in hydrological framing of Cape Town's Kuils River - Nikiwe Solomon, University of Cape Town

• Windscapes and Socio-technical imaginaries of the Tsitsikamma Community Wind Farm, South Africa - Michelle Pressend, University of Cape Town

• Conservation and Expulsion: The Sikumi Forest Reserve in Zimbabwe 1 - Tafadzwa Mushonga, University of Cape Town; Frank Matose, University of Cape Town

• Protecting a “pristine biodiversity” on Mount Mabu: Constructing Divides and Marginalizing Local Worlds 1 - Anselmo Matusse, University of Cape Town

• 'This is not political, it's technical': Science, environment, and unions in defense of the public 1 - Gloria Baigorrotegui, Instituto de Estudios Avanzados - Usach; Maria Paz Aedo, Universidad de Santiago de Chile

Session Organizers

• Lesley J F Green, University of Cape Town

• Gloria Baigorrotegui, Instituto de Estudios Avanzados - Usach

• Kristina Lyons, University of Pennsylvania