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).