Rethinking Extraction: A Lefebvrian Critique of Sustainable Mining Discourse
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Authors
Aouamri, Yanis
Date
Type
thesis
Language
eng
Keyword
Henri Lefebvre , Sustainability , Mining , Extraction , Space , Extractivism , Unliveable Space , Space of Death , Alternative Spaces
Alternative Title
Abstract
The idea of Sustainable Mining (SM) has gained increasing traction in the past two decades as an industry-based response to concerns over operational pollution, the (mis)treatment of local/Indigenous communities, and a growing awareness of diminishing and finite mineral stocks. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is currently the theory of choice for thinking about and implementing change at the industrial level, however, this thesis argues that Henri Lefebvre’s theory of the production of space illuminates the serious limitations of such approaches. Lefebvre challenges the dominant modern understanding of space as a neutral, passive, empty container arguing that it is a socially produced realization of particular modes of spatial production. Every society produces its own space, which facilitates and constrains different forms of life. CSR remains mired in that abstract and reductive spatialization exemplified by extractive processes that have made, and continue to make, spaces unliveable for thousands of communities around the world. I suggest Lefebvre’s work offers a quite different way of thinking about sustainability itself, not as an abstract balancing act between three distinct pillars – economy, society, environment, but in terms of how these are, in actuality, always already combined together in and through different modes of spatial production. The focus of sustainability then becomes one of producing and reproducing continually livable spaces, rather than ensuring economic growth.
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Queen's University's Thesis/Dissertation Non-Exclusive License for Deposit to QSpace and Library and Archives Canada
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Intellectual Property Guidelines at Queen's University
Copying and Preserving Your Thesis
This publication is made available by the authority of the copyright owner solely for the purpose of private study and research and may not be copied or reproduced except as permitted by the copyright laws without written authority from the copyright owner.
CC0 1.0 Universal
ProQuest PhD and Master's Theses International Dissemination Agreement
Intellectual Property Guidelines at Queen's University
Copying and Preserving Your Thesis
This publication is made available by the authority of the copyright owner solely for the purpose of private study and research and may not be copied or reproduced except as permitted by the copyright laws without written authority from the copyright owner.
CC0 1.0 Universal