Doctoral Students' Annual Conference

(De)Naturalising Extractivism: Investigating its Social Orders and Resistances

20-21 October 2020 - University of Helsinki, Finland

Warm thanks to all of those who took part in our conference! The recorded sessions (keynotes and methods workshop) can be found on the EXALT webpage or YouTube channel.

EXALT partnered with two doctoral programs from the Faculty Social Sciences at the University of Helsinki to coproduce an online annual conference as a pre-conference to the Global Extractivisms and Alternatives Initiative (EXALT) Symposium 2020. Our partners for this exciting pre-conference were the doctoral programme in Social Sciences and the doctoral programme in Political, Societal and Regional Change.

The 7th Annual Conference for the Doctoral Programme in Social Sciences & the Doctoral Programme in Political, Societal and Regional Change explored the (de)naturalisations of extractivist practices. Extractivism refers both to material extraction of natural resources prevalent in industries such as mining and agribusiness, as well as old and new extractivist practices forming around e.g. data, cultures, knowledge, and bodies. We understand extractivism as inherently linked with the operations of capital, but also with the shaping of social processes. Our conference asks how extractive practices — and the industries and capital enacting them — are made out to be part of a naturalised and thus often invisible social order. We also wish to bring forth perspectives on how such naturalisations are resisted and deconstructed in diverse discourses and practices, in and beyond decolonial research and activism.

Our 2020 conference was held fully online.

If you have any questions, please contact us at exalt@helsinki.fi.

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