Development, Territorial sovereignty, Radical democracy, Reappropriation, Argentina, Brazil

Abstract: In this paper we reflect on post-extractivist alternatives from below taking experiences from Argentina and Brazil as empirical references. These resistances recognize complex genealogies shaped by the historical violence represented in the imaginary geography of development and colonialism. These struggles are plural and multi-scale in articulating specific territorial conflicts with cosmopolitan horizons. Furthermore they are characterized by having a radical power and determination to prevent, neutralize and contest extractivism politics through a variety of strategies. On top of that they demonstrate a common assessment by territorial sovereignty, social justice and reapproppriation of nature that confronts the logic of extractive capital and destruction of nature. In this scenario, compressed between resistance and creation urgencies, these alternatives from below are configured as "experimental fields" that foreshadow societal projects of greater scope and duration.

This media entry was a contribution to the special session "Post-extractivism and de-growth: Two sides of the same perspective?" at the 4th International Degrowth Conference in Leipzig in 2014.