Contribution short abstract:

By tracing different perspectives on repairing a seemingly ruined future in Brumadinho, a mining community in southeastern Brazil severely affected by the collapse of a tailings dam in 2019, this paper scrutinizes the (re)configurations of temporal dimensions in the wake of extractivism.

Contribution long abstract:

Extractivism is an economy built on a temporal paradox: while it relies primarily on the materiality of past temporal layers, it simultaneously projects a 'utopian' promise of progress and prosperity. Therefore, 'crises' of such economies can radically challenge the established socio-political order based on common and commoning temporal configurations. This paper focuses on the mining community of Brumadinho, in the southeastern Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, and its ongoing confrontation with the consequences of a tailings dam collapse in January 2019: even after six years, the search for bodies and cleanup efforts in the devastated area are still far from complete. At the same time, however, the agreement that has promised and financed "full reparation" is about to deplete. How do (un)commoning temporalities contribute to the efforts to repair an extractive economy? By tracing different perspectives on repairing a seemingly ruined future in Brumadinho, this paper scrutinizes the (re)configurations of local temporal references in the wake of extractivism and its collapse. The idea of 'repair', as this contribution empirically illustrates, goes beyond the idea of a commonly accepted 'returning to the status quo ante'. Rather, local debates reveal a variety of reparative assumptions and aspirations that not only raise the question of future life in the region but also problematize what actually needs to be repaired and how this should be done.