Contribution short abstract:

This presentation discusses the effects of geographical and imaginary remoteness of mining sites on local practices of work and aspirations for future income by the example of the Angren region, one of Uzbekistan's main mining areas for gold, coal and formerly uranium.

Contribution long abstract:

The region of Angren is one of Uzbekistan's main mining areas for gold and coal, formerly also for uranium. With the demise of the Soviet Union and the mass emigration of ethnic Germans and Russians, many of them specialised engineers from the mining areas, Angren has garnered a reputation of postindustrial tristesse over the last thirty years. Partly the emigrés have been substituted by newcomers from the Ferghana Valley and southern Uzbekistan, attracted by the closeness to the capital Tashkent. Although the town has taken some effort to recast itself in a more positive light, problems posed by hazardous matter that remains in the soil, water and air remains. While mining still is an important income option for many, there is an acute sense of need for income diversification, especially after mining companies now do no longer offer the same social, health and financial benefits that they once provided. Ruins of former miners' resorts in the mountains are a visible symbol of local nostalgia and centempt for Soviet elites at the same time. Tourism is locally often regarded as the big game changer but not everyone wants or can engange in the tourism business. By taking two small mining places in the Angren mountains as vantage point, this presentation will discuss the effects of geographical and imaginary remoteness of mining sites on local practices of work and aspirations for future income.

Contribution short abstract:

I analyze varigated processes of un/commoning in and around Pödelwitz, a village in the central German mining district that was saved from devastation. I then theorize a concept of climate justice grounded in the post-socialist condition of the central German mining district.

Contribution long abstract:

Pödelwitz is a village in the central German mining district south of Leipzig. It neighbors the active lignite mine Vereinigtes Schleenhain, which threatened its existence until recently. But Pödelwitz was saved from devastation, because local residents and climate activist resisted a planned expansion of the mine. From the resistance emerged the civil society initiative Pödelwitz hat Zukunft, which aims to transform Pödelwitz into a social-ecological model village in line with the values of climate justice. Commoning is a central economic principle in this transformation, which the initiative has realized on a small scale of repair cafes, give-and-take shops, and herbal gardens.

At the same time, there are overarching processes of uncommoning around Pödelwitz, which are significant obstacles to this transformation. The civil society initiative has struggled with acquiring and commoning a single piece of property, because the mining company Mibrag, or rather the Czech investor EPH, still owns 80% of the real estate in Pödelwitz, leaving the village in socio-economic abandonment. Moreover, the mining has destabilized the ecosystem and ground below the village. It is unclear whether EPH can be hold responsible for the ecological restoration of the landscape or will succeed in socializing these long-term costs and putting Pödelwitz in jeopardy for centuries.

Drawing on my collaborative fieldwork with the initiative, I will analyze these variegated process of un/commoning in and around Pödelwitz. Based on this analysis, I will then theorize a concept of climate justice as commoning, grounded in the post-socialist condition of the central German mining district.

Contribution short abstract:

In Mailuu-Suu, a former uranium mining town in southern Kyrgyzstan, the harmful legacies of the town's uranium past are a common burden equally shared in its environmental consequences, but the opportunities associated with remediation work are uncommoned for the purposes of external interests.

Contribution long abstract:

The dissolution of the Soviet Union has left the residents of Mailuu-Suu, a former uranium mining town in southern Kyrgyzstan, grappling with social, economic, and environmental ruination. The town’s rapid de-industrialization—a result of the neoliberal pressures exerted on local industries by Western financial institutions—and the toxic legacies of two decades of uranium mining and processing—in the form of three million cubic meters of radioactive residues dispersed across the surrounding mountainous area—have brought Mailuu-Suu perilously close to a post-apocalyptic state. The remediation work that recently started in Mailuu-Suu could alleviate both the environmental and the socio-economic suffering, but this is not the case. The private companies involved implement hiring practices set by international organizations that exclude locals from the well-paid jobs created in their own community. Similarly, the international grants made available for training sessions and capacity-building initiatives are accessible only to experts and organizations with no ties to the town. For the residents of Mailuu-Suu, this exclusion is a source of deep frustration. The remediation work taking place around them is framed as a pathway to a better post-uranium future for the entire country, but it excludes the very people most affected by the uranium legacy. They are thus left to wonder why the uranium past is a common burden equally shared in its environmental consequences—as the uranium residues contaminate the land, air, and water for all residents—but the opportunities associated with its remediation are uncommoned for the purposes of profit and external interests.

Contribution short abstract:

The work focuses on how Teleut people living in Kemerovo region, experience and narrate the transformations of extractivist practices within their lands. I explore how different, and often contradicting, discources on extractivism emerge within groups that experienced Soviet and PostSoviet contexts.

Contribution long abstract:

Industrial and agricultural developments have significantly reshaped landscapes, territories, social and cultural lives of human and nonhuman beings, while also fueling conflicts and debates on both local and global scales. Although discussions of environmentalism and climate change date back to earlier centuries, which were also manifested within the Russian Empire, these discourses became more urgent in the second half of the twentieth century. Nevertheless, opinions of indigenous communities and those nonindigenous groups who were directly affected by transformation and expropriation of the lands were not always adequately represented within the dominant environmental discourses and decision-making processes as around the globe so in the areas within the Soviet Union. While indigenous communities and сommunities vulnerable to mining becoming key participants in ongoing resistance, by also becoming the actors in reshaping the discourse around environmental problems and injustice, it is also important to look at how lives and interactions of different beings are involved in extractivism and reshaped within this mineral age and mining transformations. I concentrate on the Teleut Turkic indigenous group living in the villages near open coal pit mines in the contemporary Kemerovo region in southwestern Siberia and explore how Teleut people reflect on the shifts in coal mining from the Soviet period to the post-Soviet era. Although mining areas are often represented as assemblages of destructive forces, I try to look at how local people build own narratives around their landscape, coal, coal dumps and ongoing mining and what forms of interactions are emerging within the carbon landscapes.

Contribution short abstract:

The presentation explores the anthropological dimensions of sand mining in Cambodia, highlighting the erosion of traditional commons and environmental justice issues. It addresses the challenges of conducting research under autocratic rule, emphasizing the impacts of extraction on local communities.

Contribution long abstract:

This presentation investigates Cambodia's contentious sand mining operations, set against the escalating global demand for construction aggregates. Central to this analysis is the socio-environmental impact of extractivism within the existing power structures in Cambodia, which grapples with the juxtaposition of blame for unwanted outcomes and a history resounding with socialist echoes of 'benefit for all'.

Initial research results reveal that communities enduring severe environmental impacts do not protest, while spiritual authority erodes against the backdrop of market-based exploitation. These phenomena highlight profound social transformations, driven by the 'thirst for sand' (Jamieson 2019) and subsequent extractivism. Emphasizing these dynamics, this presentation navigates the complex terrain of (un)commoning practices within Cambodia's sand mining contexts, referencing the planned anthropological research project 'Sandscapes in Southeast Asia'. The aim is to explore crucial questions around the negotiation of natural resources and the impact of large-scale interventions on human and non-human relationships.

Critical to the analysis is the acknowledgment that conducting research under Cambodia's autocratic rule presents significant challenges. The reality of limited transparency, restricted information access, stifled public discourse, and the ever-present fear of retaliation hinder comprehensive inquiry. The phenomenon of self-censorship, resulting from these factors, will be further examined and discussed in the context of this paper.

Contribution short abstract:

Ambivalente Stimmung im mitteldeutschen Revier: DDR- und Kohlenostalgie erzeugen Widerstand gegen den Strukturwandel und Wirtschaftsakteure hingegen sehen Chancen. Gibt es eine Balance zwischen der Bewahrung des Gemeinschaftsgefühls der Vergangenheit und einer inklusiven, nachhaltigen Zukunft?

Contribution long abstract:

In diesem Vortrag untersuche ich die komplexen Dynamiken von Nostalgie, Ablehnung und auch Hoffnungen auf einen erfolgreichen Strukturwandel im Mitteldeutschen Revier auf der Basis meiner Forschung mit zivilgesellschaftlichen und wirtschaftlichen Akteuren der Region. Dieses ehemals bedeutende Kohlerevier war in der DDR stolz auf seinen Beitrag zur Unabhängigkeit in der Stromerzeugung und auf die regionale chemische Industrie, auch wenn beides mit erheblichen Umweltbelastungen und die DDR mit Repressionen verbunden war. Der Kohleausstieg wird nur noch wenige Menschen ihren Arbeitsplatz verlieren lassen, dennoch ist dies ein übergeordnetes Thema.

Der anstehende Strukturwandel, bestehend aus weiterer Digitalisierung und Elektrifizierung, teilweise unterstützt durch Strukturwandelfonds, stößt auf erheblichen Widerstand. Dieser wird verstärkt durch die AfD, die Wind- und Solarenergie ablehnt und auch die notwendige Zuwanderung von Fachkräften erschwert. Die gemeinsame Gestaltung der Zukunft wird dadurch erschwert. Diese Ablehnung steht im Gegensatz zu den Hoffnungen der Wirtschaftsakteure, die Strukturwandelmittel nutzen wollen, um sich und die Region voranzubringen.

Im Gegensatz dazu zeigt das Rheinische Revier eine effektivere Nutzung der Strukturwandelmittel, die durch eine flexible und partizipative Verteilung ermöglicht wurde. Hier haben sich Kommunen und Akteure erfolgreich zusammengeschlossen, um Planungsprozesse zu optimieren und die Mittel effizient einzusetzen. Der Umbau eines alten Kohlekraftwerks zu einem Rechenzentrum verspricht zwar Arbeitsplätze und weitere Investitionen, stellt aber neue Herausforderungen an die Stromversorgung. Hier wird die Zukunft anders gestaltet.

Angesichts der Dringlichkeit möchte ich daher konstruktiv fragen: Wie kann eine Balance zwischen der Bewahrung einer gemeinsamen Vergangenheit, die auf der Nutzung fossiler Ressourcen basiert, und der Entwicklung einer inklusiven und nachhaltigen Zukunft erreicht werden?

Contribution short abstract:

The presentation grounds efforts by states to collectivise responsibility for perpetuating extractivism in the broader global developments. The case of gold extractivism in Kyrgyzstan reveals unintended consequences of irresponsible uncommoning as it redefines and renews collective action.

Contribution long abstract:

Commons and commoning have been and continue to be central to socionatural organisation despite mounting pressure since the rise and reign of the neoliberal global capitalist governance. Initially sidelined as a practice in quest of “getting the prices right”, as a discourse however commoning has found political purchase for rebranding the crumbling neoliberal order since the turn of the century. As extractivist states, in tandem with corporations and development organisations, have foregrounded “getting the institutions right” for promoting good, and better, governance, they have turned to the notions of commoning, care and collective action for doing away with their responsibilities towards affected and activist citizens and communities. State and corporate actors have increasingly put these tactics into use to discursively and morally legitimise their extractive agendas in the name of ‘the greater common good’ (Blaser and de la Cadena 2017). As a result, the strategies to materialise large-scale mining adapt and evolve, assuming more subtle ways to silence the opposition. This presentation contextualises the contemporary double-movement of co-opting commoning as a discursive strategy to uncommon social geographies and remake them as resources in these broader developments. As an illustrative case, the presentation then turns to Kyrgyzstan and grounds these strategies in sustaining gold extractivism and commoning state’s responsibility, as well as their unintended consequences for grassrooted processes of re/commoning responsibility and capacities to aspire to alternative futures (Appadurai 2004).