Extractivism and socio-environmental inequalities

• In Event: Environmental Governance Trends in Latin America: Resources, Conflicts and Exclusion/Inclusion

Abstract

In the last couple of years Latin America has experienced an unprecedented global valorization of its natural resources. In many countries extractivism is the driving force behind the growth of national economies. Revenues from the export of minerals or soybeans generate important financial means for public social policies. On the other hand extractivism triggers deep social conflicts and disputes on recognition, participation and distribution of gains, risks and costs. The paper discusses if extractivism deepens pre-existing social inequalities, if it creates new configurations of inequalities, or if it reduces asymmetries. By this it wants to contribute to an inclusion of the environmental dimension in the study of social inequalities and of the inequality dimension in the analysis of extractivism. The paper builds on outcomes of desiguALdades.net, an international research network on interdependent inequalities in Latin America.

Author

• Barbara Göbel, Ibero-Amerikanisches Institut