Founded in 2019 and launched in 2020 at the University of Helsinki, EXALT, The Global Extractivisms and Alternatives Initiative, is a research programme focusing on political-ecological and political-economic aspects of global extractivisms and associated socio-environmental crises, including climate change. EXALT pursues detailed empirical research of ecologically and socio-economically destructive forms of natural resource extraction around the globe, and of the transformative alternatives to them. Our focus is on natural-resource politics, although we are actively engaged in discussions of further applications of the concept beyond the traditional areas of natural resource extraction. EXALT offers critical social-scientific analyses of extractivism as one of the most problematic issues of our time and of key importance for managing pressing global problems.
EXALT is the leading research unit in the field of critical studies of extractivism and natural-resource politics within Finland, with recognized world-leading research publications, based on detailed field research conducted across the globe, especially in the Global South. We bring this knowledge and our wide networks with international scholars, policy-makers, environmental-justice advocates, and a broad range of other actors, offering novel ideas for transformative alternatives to current extractivisms. EXALT offers a platform for discussing global extractivisms and their transformative alternatives from different viewpoints. It aims to serve as a place for gathering and distributing the most recent understandings of the dynamics of extractivisms and how to transform them in order to build more just and sustainable futures.