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Paper short abstract

This paper examines the competing knowledge-practices in a limestone region in Cambodia. It argues that attending to varied ethical practices through which circularity is enacted open new ways to understand the disturbing alliance between extractivism and environmental care.

Paper long abstract

Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in a limestone region of Kampot, Cambodia, this paper explores how knowledge-practices of extraction and conservation—both of which invoke the logic of circularity—are enacted on the ground. As a key ingredient in cement production, limestone has long been mined to support infrastructure-making. Recently, cement companies across the world have increasingly adopted principles of the circular economy, collecting waste materials as alternative fuels for limestone kilns in the name of sustainability. Cambodia is no exception.

Using a cement factory as a case study, this paper demonstrates how the notion of circularity props up a particular form of environmental care (e.g. waste reduction) whilst simultaneously perpetuating another form of environmental destruction (e.g. limestone extraction). Yet beyond its value as construction material, the limestone landscape also sustains diverse wildlife, particularly bats, whose guano provides an important source of livelihood for local villagers. Appealing to the notion of circularity, community-based conservation initiatives have sought to regenerate the landscape and bat populations.

By delving into the entanglements between extractivism and conservation, this paper illustrates how circularity becomes multiple on the ground, taking shape through diverse ethical orientations. Whereas the association between circularity and extractivism is often criticised as “greenwashing”, such a narrative may not fully encapsulate how competing realities—of care and/of exploitation—are held to be true. Attending to varied ethical practices through which circularity is enacted, I suggest, may open up new ways of understanding the unsettling alliance between extractivism and environmental care.