Contribution short abstract:

In Riotinto in southwest Spain, a long history of industrial mining has created its own mining society and culture. Corresponding values have been shaped by extractivism. Nowadays, narratives about the past and a waste dump in the contaminated landscape are triggering processes of uncommoning.

Contribution long abstract:

Processes of commoning in Riotinto have been ongoing since industrialisation when a British company opened what was then the largest copper mine in the world. The relationship people built with this extractive activity and the landscape is the basis for a culturally embedded mining identity. Above all, the extensive representation of extractivism in painting, poetry and photography testifies to this close relationship. Nowadays, while mining requires a far lower workforce, art is still a community-building experience, as it brings the collective activity of mining and life in the mine into the present and creates a common basis for exchange and identification. This reproduces values that recognise the hard and dangerous work of the miners and honour their contributions to modern, technological society and extractive practices. The article examines two uncommoning developments as well:

Different narratives of the mining museum and foundations define the history as British or even as Martian. At the same time, the inhabitants emphasize their own role in the transformation of the landscape in relation to the "foreigners" and the "company".

In the meanwhile, a toxic landfill leads to an encounter between waste and non-waste, reducing extractivist values to the absurd and thereby throwing norms and moralities into disarray. While people protest against the landfill, this could lead to a cultural change in the long term, where extractivism is possibly transforming into an uncommoning process. The article sheds light on cultural dimensions in the discussion about extractivism, resources and waste.