Mining matters: Coloniality and the politics of the sustainable energy transition

Titelangaben

Bonelli, Cristobal ; Calkins, Sandra ; Weber, Andreas:
Mining matters: Coloniality and the politics of the sustainable energy transition.
In: The Extractive Industries and Society. Bd. 28 (2026) . - 101998.
ISSN 2214-7918
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.exis.2026.101998

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Abstract

Contemporary talk of sustainable energy transitions, green technologies, or green energy evokes environmentally friendly, benign and forward-looking policy and practice. Typically, such imaginations of a greener energy future avoid mention of the raw mineral realities of mining. To question these dominant policy framings, we use the analytical lens of coloniality to examine continuities, ruptures and expansions of extractive practices on different scales. Our contention is this: Today, long after European colonial rule officially ended, colonial logics and power asymmetries continue to shape mining practices and their afterlives in different parts of the world, and these are evident in Europe’s ongoing push towards sustainable energy technologies. We trace the operations of coloniality on different temporal and/or geographical scales and extend our interest to material politics of mining matters. In this way, we contribute to building a historically informed critique of how coloniality has and continues to frame a seemingly inevitable expansion of mining endeavors – now purportedly in the service of greater environmental goods. This lets us problematize redemptive ideas of ‘transitioning’ societies towards green technologies and opens a space to challenge expansionist imaginations of mining futures and their uneven geographies.