Paper short abstract:

The paper explores the everyday vernacular knowledges produced by artisanal miners as they navigate mining toxicities and accidents in Zimbabwe.

Paper long abstract:

The mining economy of Zimbabwe depends on gold outputs from Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining, but beyond this Panglossian upbeat picture, there is a darker story of extractivism. Gold mining has resulted in the extensive use of cyanide, mercury and arsenic acid and these chemicals have affected the health and everyday life of artisanal miners. This paper seeks to explore the environmental history of mining pollution in three localities of resource extraction in Zimbabwe’s Mashonaland province. While there a copious scholarship on mining pollution, there is limited literature that engages with the ingenuity of miners in navigating radioactive toxic waste and their everyday environmental intellectual consciousness. Drawing from engaged ethnographic fieldwork with interlocutors, this paper demonstrates that while miners negotiate chemical exposure in mining, they also learn about the nature of chemicals, its emotive behaviours and as a result they develop idiographic language on how they think and reimagine toxicities. This paper argues that while miners work and adapt to the toxic circumstances, they create knowledge and develop vernacular ideas on pristine landscapes, dust behaviour in underground tunnels mines as ways of navigating toxic exposure. Using toxic tales from children, the paper reimagines toxicity as both destructive but also inseparable from capital accumulation and livelihoods in mining frontiers. The paper joins the growing conversation on environmental transformation in southern Africa and expands the complicated historiographies of resource extraction, toxicology, socio-environmental knowledge ,capital accumulation and livelihoods in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Paper short abstract:

This presentation will showcase the work of the AnthropoSouth research project, which aims to investigates the history of oil extraction in a pan-Latin American context and, through that, rethink the history of the Anthropocene from a non-western perspective.

Paper long abstract:

This presentation will showcase the different approaches of the AnthropoSouth research project, which aims to investigate the history of oil extraction in a pan-Latin American context. Focusing on this fossil fuel we aim to trace the history of Latin America within the modern world and, through that, to rethink the history of the Anthropocene from a non-western perspective. By highlighting the mechanisms that led post-colonial nations to adopt fossil-fueled economic models, the project aims to show how Latin American countries used petroleum as a lever to strengthen their political sovereignty as well as their position in the global economy.

The presentation will highlight several key insights from the individual projects that comprise the AnthropoSouth team, using different scales of analysis to compare and connect the history of different national projects of petroleum development. One part will deal with the history of Latin American oil towns as a contested environment where labor and social movements as well as oil companies articulated and fought over different visions of modernity and energy justice. Another part will focus on the role of energy infrastructure in Latin America's industrialization program, and the relationship between uneven economic growth and the reproduction of social and environmental problems. A third and final part will reflect on the expansion of oil extraction frontiers in the Amazonian territory, considering how a specific biome could shape, but also constrain national economic development projects.

Paper short abstract:

I propose the concept 'Township Environmentalism' as a comprehensive framework to understand the complexities of gold mine dump townships in the Anthropocene era.

Paper long abstract:

The multitude of environmentalism theories plays a crucial role in addressing challenges posed by the Anthropocene. However, I argue that these theories alone cannot adequately convey the intricate story of gold mine dump townships in the Witwatersrand in a fair and comprehensive manner. Thus, I propose the concept of 'Township Environmentalism' as an encompassing framework, aiming to recognise both vocal and less overt forms of environmental activism within this unique context. This approach acknowledges the coexistence of active and passive expressions of environmental concern. By decentralising the study of 'Township Environmentalism,' two sub-concepts emerge: 'Micro Environmental Activism' and 'Environmentalism of the Belly.' These concepts shed light on the diverse ways individuals and communities within townships engage with and respond to environmental challenges. While this paper adopts a theoretical approach primarily, I plan to bolster my arguments by integrating preliminary findings from fieldwork in South Africa. These empirical observations will enrich the understanding of the proposed concept and provide real-world examples of 'Township Environmentalism' in action. While acknowledging the benefits of other decentralised and decolonialised environmentalism theories like 'Black Environmentalism' and 'Environmentalism of the Poor,' I argue that they have inherent limitations in capturing the unique perspectives and responses of Witwatersrand township residents. 'Township Environmentalism' offers a more nuanced and contextually relevant framework to interpret the dynamics at play in this specific setting.

Paper short abstract:

Fracking in the Beetaloo Basin has sparked national debates due to excessive groundwater use and pollution, particularly in Aboriginal communities. I explore how anti-fracking activists mobilise hydrological science and Aboriginal traditions to inform public perceptions of subterranean landscapes.

Paper long abstract:

Like other arid regions in Australia, the Beetaloo Basin relies largely on underground water for human consumption and agricultural industries. The introduction of hydraulic fracturing (i.e., ‘fracking’) industries to this region has therefore faced heavy local and national contestation. Fracking’s overuse of groundwater resources, in addition to potential pollution, has resulted in major concerns from local communities over the implications to their everyday lives and long-term survival in the region.

Fracking’s impact on underground environments raises significant and particular concerns for local Aboriginal peoples, who constitute the majority of the area’s population and frequently associate the underground with traditional Aboriginal creation narratives. Not only does this conflict add to ongoing historical and institutional injustices caused by the colonial legacy, it also raises new questions about the juxtaposition of traditional ecological knowledge, hydrological science and the privileging of resource extraction(ism). Sitting at the nexus of Indigeneity, environmentalism, and hydrological science, my ethnographic fieldwork explores how these concepts are mobilised by anti-fracking activists. With specific attention to both hydrological science and Aboriginal traditional narratives, this work engages friction (Tsing, 2005) to scrutinise how environmental knowledge production has been both produced by and challenges resource extraction.