Proyectos de Muerte: Energy justice conflicts on Mexico’s unconventional gas frontier

Yet more ‘fracking’ social science: An overview of unconventional hydrocarbon development globally

“…In nations where we know less about social aspects of UHD to date, we also see policy critiques arise. Both articles examining the situation in Mexico identify a national regulatory system that is not yet adequate to govern UHD (Ibarzábal 2018, Ontiveros et al 2018. Ontiveros et al (2018) specifically point to the public having no meaningful role in governance.…”

“…Both articles examining the situation in Mexico identify a national regulatory system that is not yet adequate to govern UHD (Ibarzábal 2018, Ontiveros et al 2018. Ontiveros et al (2018) specifically point to the public having no meaningful role in governance. Public input has been reduced in Mexico due to a recent legislative shift to promote extraction and incentivise foreign development, which interestingly is a very similar legislative shift to what Algeria is contemplating currently (Azubuike et al 2018).…”

“…Concerns about distribution of risks and benefits are one reason that emphasis has been put on increasing local voice in decision making. Reviews of research in the southern and western USA (Haggerty et al 2018, Theodori 2018, the comparison between the UK and Australia (Witt et al 2018b), and research from Mexico (Ontiveros et al 2018) and Argentina (Costie et al 2018) all point to notable disparities in who benefits from and who is negatively impacted by UHD. Perceptions of lacking procedural and distributive justice are one of the key motivators of activism on UHD.…”

“…Nevertheless, little inquiry in this special issue looks at interactions between actors who are located in different nation states. Research from Mexico (Ontiveros et al 2018), Algeria (Azubuike et al 2018), and South Africa (Andreasson 2018) speaks briefly to the role that transnational corporations and foreign investment could play in UHD. New Zealanders' reliance on knowledge of UHD that was generated in other nations is an additional example (Widener 2018).…”

“…Although research on the relationships between actors cross-nationally is a key exciting and promising area for future research, one cannot be naïve to the challenges of research in some geographies. For example, consider assassinations of journalists and activists in Mexico (Ontiveros et al 2018), terrorist attacks on gas production infrastructure in Algeria (Azubuike et al 2018), and institutionalised censorship in China that takes to a different level critiques of governance lacking democracy (Aczel and Makuch 2018). These are not research challenges that many North American or European researchers would be prepared to contend with, and they raise legitimate ethical questions about involvement of local populations in our research.…”