The Global Extractivisms and Alternatives Initiative (EXALT) is a new international network of scholars, activists, and policymakers dedicated to collaboration and knowledge creation around the pressing crises stemming from extractivist policies and practices. At the EXALT Initiative 2020 conference we seek to draw together diverse critical analyses of the phenomena of global extractivisms and the myriad alternatives being actively pursued in both theory and practice. It is the intention of this conference to contribute to, expand, and deepen the concept of extractivism and the role of alternatives beyond the conventional usage connected to natural resources.
The upcoming conference "Concurrent crisis and sustainable futures: Global Extractivisms and Alternatives" is a two day conference with six scientific sessions. We hope to catalyze and facilitate inter- and transdisciplinary dialogue and collaboration, and welcome proposals from researchers of all academic career-levels. Please read instructions for the submission below.
To present your work in the conference please submit an abstract on your research (max 500 words without references). In you submission please state clearly, which thematic track you wish to participate in and whether you wish to do an oral presentation or a poster presentation. The abstract should include the key research questions, theoretical underpinnings, empirical foundations (if applicable) and expected contributions to the discussions of the selected theme.
The conference also offers space for a variety of methods of making and talking science. Therefore we welcome submissions of alternative ways of examining and discussing the conference themes, outside of the traditional powerpoint-presentation form (for example sessions which include participatory elements and creative and/or artistic presentations).
Below you can find the thematic tracks of the conference.
As many of us are seeing our lives changed by COVID-19 and the measures taken to stop the pandemic, the most important thing right now is to take care of ourselves and each other. In addition, we believe there is great value in continuing the important dialogue for a more sustainable and just world, which is why the EXALT coordination team continues to work towards actualising the conference in October, while at the same time closely following the development of the situation.
This track examines the politics, political economy, political ecology and world-ecologies of extractivisms, especially their wider dynamics. Topics could include, agroextractivisms, mining, forestry, hydrocarbons and other areas affected by the extractivist paradigm. Papers on broader dynamics, such as climate change-related crises and state-corporate-civil society interactions are welcome.
Track chairs: Markus Kröger, Anja Nygren & Barry Gills
In this thematic track, we call for presentations that analyze and examine Indigenous peoples’ struggles and sovereignty, the interplay of coloniality and modernity, intersectionality, language and linguistics, and post-extractivist social movements. Contributions that examine these themes from any region of the world are encouraged. Papers that address resistance and autonomy in relation to capitalist modernity are welcome.
Track Chairs: Pirjo Kristiina Virtanen, Eija Ranta, Paola Minoia and Maija Lassila
In this thematic track, we call for presentations that further the understanding of tensions and contradictions in urbanism that are central to a post extractivist agenda. Urban centers have increasingly become nodes for consumption, processing, and extraction. Papers that contribute to (re)theorizing urban development as part of development, underdevelopment, and alternative development are strongly encouraged. Analyses that deconstruct modernist fossil and nuclear-based urbanism from a theoretical, empirical, and methodological viewpoint are invited.
Track Chairs: Franklin Obeng-Odoom and Özlem Celik
In this thematic track, we seek presentations that explore financial, intellectual, and data related extractivist practices. The evolving institutions of money and the structures of debt are central to the advance of extractivist practices locally and globally. Papers that analyze global centers and systems of financial accumulation, financialization and extractivist structures of world production, and emerging alternative monies and decentralized production are encouraged. Data extractivism and commodification of data are important themes for this track.
Track Chairs: Ossi Ollinaho and Christopher Chagnon
In this thematic track, we call for presentations that analyze and examine the diverse practices that shape the transformations needed to build alternative futures in a post-extractive world. Despite the centrality that the very act of organizing has for the envisioned transformations, the key organizational dimensions and processes that drive such transformations have to date received little attention in the debate on how to transition to post-extractive alternative lifeforms. We welcome contributions exploring the organization of work, skills, spaces and everyday life practices leading to deep transformations needed to build alternative worlds. We are also interested in papers on organizational processes that involve the interplay among human and nonhuman co-constructing life on a livable planet, and the theoretical, ontological and methodological challenges when studying such alternative organizations.
Track Chairs: Maria Ehrnström-Fuentes, Galina Kallio and Maxim Vlasov
If you have a topic on extractivisms and alternatives that you feel does not fit any of the named thematic tracks above, we welcome your submission under this open theme track.
Track Chairs: Sophia Hagolani-Albov and Janne Salovaara