Publication
“Dizemos nosso rio, mas não é nosso”: Dispossession and resistance against a lithium mining project in Covas do Barroso, Northern Portugal
| Summary: | The company, Savannah Resources, and its project to mine lithium in Covas do Barroso (municipality of Boticas), is felt as a threat by most of the people in the freguesia and by external actors defending social and environmental rights. The threat of the project increases when situated within a political atmosphere that insists on a “sustainable energy transition” that prioritizes the growth of our economic system through the use of “renewable energy”. My focus will be on the way the population of Covas deals with the resulting present and future events caused by the ‘Mina da Savannah’ project, as the local population refers to it. In order to articulate relations between local and global economy, I focus on the material realities of Barbara and David (residents of Covas do Barroso) and of the Mina da Savannah, respectively. In Covas do Barroso, as in other places, there are contradictions and conflicting interests between the inhabitants. Although the experiences of Barbara and David don't encompass life in Covas, I will make use of them to articulate the economic and social relations of the region. In the same way, I will describe the material and ideological impact of the Mina da Savannah as a representation of global capitalist dynamics. Through the materialization of these experiences, I try to disentangle the apparently inconmensurable but deeply dependent relations between the local and global economic, political and social interests. |
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| Main Authors: | Menendez, Shandra |
| Subject: | Land Reprodução social -- Social reproduction Extractivism Lithium Covas do Barroso Energy transition Terra -- Earth Extrativismo Transição energética |
| Year: | 2022 |
| Country: | Portugal |
| Document type: | master thesis |
| Access type: | open access |
| Associated institution: | ISCTE |
| Language: | Portuguese |
| Origin: | Repositório ISCTE |
| Summary: | The company, Savannah Resources, and its project to mine lithium in Covas do Barroso (municipality of Boticas), is felt as a threat by most of the people in the freguesia and by external actors defending social and environmental rights. The threat of the project increases when situated within a political atmosphere that insists on a “sustainable energy transition” that prioritizes the growth of our economic system through the use of “renewable energy”. My focus will be on the way the population of Covas deals with the resulting present and future events caused by the ‘Mina da Savannah’ project, as the local population refers to it. In order to articulate relations between local and global economy, I focus on the material realities of Barbara and David (residents of Covas do Barroso) and of the Mina da Savannah, respectively. In Covas do Barroso, as in other places, there are contradictions and conflicting interests between the inhabitants. Although the experiences of Barbara and David don't encompass life in Covas, I will make use of them to articulate the economic and social relations of the region. In the same way, I will describe the material and ideological impact of the Mina da Savannah as a representation of global capitalist dynamics. Through the materialization of these experiences, I try to disentangle the apparently inconmensurable but deeply dependent relations between the local and global economic, political and social interests. |
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