Modern society is the result of the historical process of consolidation and expansion of modern capitalism. This expansion expresses in the intensive and extensive extraction, transportation and consumption of natural resources, in other words, in global commodity chains. Oil, coal, sugar, copper and soy are just some of the many commodities that form the material basis of our daily life. More often than not, we take them for granted, but in practice, they require a complex assemblage to reach us as final consumers.
While combining perspectives from anthropology, political ecology and science and technology studies, this course will explore the varied entanglements of natural resources in global commodity chains. We will explore the materialities, temporalities, and landscapes coproduced by resource extraction, transportation, and consumption. We will analyze the ways of knowledge, power relations, and forms of violence that emerge in the process. We will also reflect on methodologies that have served to study such entanglements and apply theoretical concepts to analyse current political issues and environmental problems.
- Trainer/in: Susana Carmona Castillo