Value, Identity and Place: unearthing the emotional geographies of the extractive sector

ABSTRACT

The practice of natural resource extraction remains a key function of the global economy, and has been the subject of a considerable body of research, across multiple academic disciplines. Growing awareness of the economic, socio-cultural and ecological aspects of extractive practices (and their impacts) have also forced change in the way in which this research is conceptualised. Yet, despite conceptual shifts, a lack of engagement with the felt and emotive dimensions of the extractive sector remains striking. As a complex and highly contested industry, acknowledging emotion is crucial to breaking down problematic representations of the sector as a ‘rational’, ‘economic’ and emotionless space. This paper emphasises the need to engage and prioritise emotional and affective registers when thinking about, and representing, the extractive sector. Specifically, this paper explores the role of emotion in problematising approaches to the material across the sector, as well as in unsettling the often taken-for-granted and highly gendered workplace identities that characterise the sector. Finally, this paper will highlight the importance of validating emotion in legitimising important relationships to place that conflict with extractive practices. In essence, this paper calls for more emotionally attuned approaches to the extractive sector, in order to engage with its profoundly emotive dimensions and impacts.

KEYWORDS:

• Emotional geographies
• extractive sector
• resources
• gender
• workplace
• place

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Penny Dunstan for generously allowing us to use her wonderful work in this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Melina Ey http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0613-1856

Meg Sherval http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0740-3542

Paul Hodge http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8633-6159

Notes

1. Whilst not focused on mineral extractive practices as such, Sultana’s (2011) work on the emotions of water disputes also poses some insightful contributions to the emotional geographies of natural resources.