Accumulation at the point of extraction: understanding contemporary capitalist dynamics in large-scale extraction illustrated by iron ore mining in Northern Quebec

Bédard, Samuel; Pineault, Éric

doi:10.1080/07078552.2022.2161223

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

References 37 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…For instance, like others around the world, the current Québec government is capitalizing on large reserves of lithium, graphite, and rare earth materials to produce "the cleanest battery in North America" (MEIE 2022) and become a 'world leader' in battery production and 'clean' industrial processes (Dubuc 2023). These projects have increasing and far-reaching effects on territorial communities, and particularly on unceded Indigenous land and communities in colonized territories, while being highly damaging to the environment (Bédard and Pineault 2022;Blais 2023;Cloutier 2022;Rockwell 2022;Vela Almeida et al 2023). Therefore, even though Québec has moved away from fossil fuels for energy production, its decarbonization efforts still face deep social and ecological contradictions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Decarbonization, hegemonic projects, and the green growth policy-planning network: the case of Québec

Viens,

Sapinski,

Laurin-Lamothe

et al. 2023

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Since 2010, grassroots-led socio-ecological movements in Québec, Canada played a key role in overturning carbon extractivist proposals. Building on their successes, these groups now aim to move energy transition debates toward a broader conception of transition that includes radical social justice and post-capitalist alternatives. Meanwhile, corporate actors and the state enlisted major ENGOs and union federations into various technocentric “green growth” projects. These hegemonic and counter-hegemonic struggles define how transition unfolds in the province, yet few have studied how actual social actors organize to carry out these divergent responses to the climate crisis. We develop a structural analysis of the green growth policy-planning network in Québec. Starting from five organizations at the core of transition debates, we analyze the network of board interlocks they are embedded in. We describe the overall structure of the network and its main corporate, civil society, and individual actors. Analysis outlines the possibility of a new power bloc forming, positioned around the green growth project and the cleantech sector, close to achieving dominance in Quebec, that would threaten deeper decarbonization efforts. Thus, despite the recent ban on petroleum extraction, like elsewhere, energy transition in Quebec still faces deep social and ecological contradictions.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%