Grassroots Responses to Extractivism

This volume makes visible innovative resistances and solutions from across the world, in response to extractivism and global ecological crises. Rooted in capitalism and coloniality, extractive regimes and socio-ecological crises are subjecting marginalized, Indigenous, and subaltern communities to the worst repercussions. Mainstream environmental policies favor market-based approaches premised on a hegemonic Western worldview that reproduce injustices and extractivism. However, the grassroots responses showcased in this book demonstrate how local communities and Indigenous peoples resist and create solutions on their own terms and cultures, when confronted with displacement, ecological destruction, and loss of sustainable ways of life. The book details a wide variety of case studies from across Asia, Africa, and Abya Yala (the Americas). The contributors, composed of a mix of academics and activists, propose bottom-up solutions and pluriversal pathways beyond resistance, highlighting how anti-capitalist, anti-colonial, and anti-anthropocentric alternatives and movements are realistic and appropriate for a world-system in ecological overdrive.