Papers by Susana Carmona Castillo
Bulletin of Latin American Research, Vol. 43, No. 4, pp. 335–339, , 2024
This piece explores the effects of the war in Ukraine on Colombia's coal industry and the contras... more This piece explores the effects of the war in Ukraine on Colombia's coal industry and the contrasting affective responses of different actors. The stark contrast between environmental and Indigenous activists' anger and the industry representatives' optimism about the revival of coal exports evidences the tension between the climate policies of the current Colombian government and the longstanding pattern of export-led economies in Latin America, a path difficult to break. Nonetheless, the situation enables a space to discuss how a 'just transition' would look for regions dependent on coal and, importantly, when that transition will be.
Energy Research & Social Science Volume 118 , December 2024, 103740, 2024
We examine the dynamic affective responses along the cross-Atlantic coal supply chain from Colomb... more We examine the dynamic affective responses along the cross-Atlantic coal supply chain from Colombia to Poland in the context of changing conditions triggered by the war in Ukraine following Russia's invasion in February 2022. Based on ethnographic fieldwork and a review of press releases and documents, our analysis focuses on the affects, emotions, social relations, and tensions resulting from people's everyday interactions with coal. We explore how unexpected events altered these interactions and how affective responses can shed light on the dynamic processes involved in the energy transition from coal. We argue that the transition is a non-linear process characterized by the diverse ways in which actors along coal supply chains experience, conceptualize, and represent it. In the context of these shifting dynamics, coal emerges as an ambiguous resource, viewed both as an outdated and polluting energy source that dispossesses Indigenous people and contributes to global warming and as a familiar and reliable fuel that provides a sense of security, maintains social relations, and remains an integral component of the global energy matrix. We conclude that a just energy transition from coal requires accounting for its complexity along supply chains, acknowledging the affective dimension of processes of change and continuity, and understanding the power dynamics between corporate agents, the state, and communities at extraction and consumption sites.
Book chapter in the edited volumen: Polifonía para pensar una pandemia. Medellín: Universidad de Antioquia, Fondo Editorial FCSH de la Facultad de Ciencias Sociales y Humanas, 2021
Boletín Comida y comunidad. Sistemas Agroalimentares Alternativos e Segurança Alimentar: contribuições a partir dos movimentos sociais. Grupo Especial FAO/CLACSO Innovación en políticas públicas de seguridad alimentaria y nutricional.e seguridad alimentaria y nutricional., 2021
Coautores:
Misael Socarrás Ipuana
Alicia Dorado González
Esteban Torres Muriel
Susana Carmona... more Coautores:
Misael Socarrás Ipuana
Alicia Dorado González
Esteban Torres Muriel
Susana Carmona Castillo
Claudia Puerta Silva
Fatima Epieyú Pelaéz
Marcela Epiayu Epiayu
Estefanía Frías Epinayú
Alonis Arregocés
Yasser Santo Durante López
Ilia Gómez Archbold
María José Rubiano
Víctor Valencia Martínez
Revista Diálogos Caribe. Espejismos y desafíos de las transiciones. ISSN: 2805-9239 Bogotá, Colombia, , 2022
Geoforum, 2022
The creation of spatial enclosures is a well-developed subject in the study of extractive industr... more The creation of spatial enclosures is a well-developed subject in the study of extractive industries. Less attention has been given to the control of time and the future within these socio-spatial contexts. Based on ethnographic fieldwork, we followed two controversial projects aimed at expanding the biggest open-pit coal mine in Colombia, both of which implied diverting watercourses to extract coal from beneath their riverbed. We describe corporate strategies that give rise to what we call temporal enclosures, the process by which mining companies aim to restrict imaginable outcomes to those that favour them, producing the sense of a manageable and inescapable future in which forthcoming activities are presented as both inevitable and desirable. The temporal enclosure is configured discursively in practices of building engineered landscapes, refashioning relations between the mine and the people, and intensifying the language and practices of nurturing and caring for humans and non-humans around the operation area. However, in the context of increasing pressure regarding the consequences of extractive industries, the dispute over alternative futures becomes a highly relevant political site. We argue that this temporal dimension is interlinked with spatial, political, and economic dynamics around extractive industries and that understanding how temporal enclosures are produced and resisted is essential for envisioning sustainable alternatives.
The Extractive Industries and Society, 2020
Abstract In a water-scarce, coal-producing region of Colombia, frictions are intensifying over th... more Abstract In a water-scarce, coal-producing region of Colombia, frictions are intensifying over the environmental impact of the diversion of a creek. Through ethnographic observation, this article examines the different positions on what this article refers to as the Bruno Creek Controversy and the enactments of scientific expertise deployed to influence decision making. On the one hand, there are officials from the mining company, who believe the risks associated with the creek diversion are negligible and manageable, potentially offset by interventions implemented under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs. On the other hand, a group of activists, equipped with local knowledge and partnered with experts, claims the project would cause unacceptable damage, furthermore arguing that the creek is a part of a sensitive broader ecosystem. At the same time, environmental authorities reveal how their enactment of expertise is bounded to political relations. This article argues that expertise is a performative, ideological, and interactional phenomenon that is authorized by existing power relationships. Controversies such as Bruno Creek, therefore, are highly productive sites for shaping environmental governance, whether through the increasing influence of local communities in decision-making, activist scientists' ability to inform policy, or through a shifting of temporal and geographical scales to better understand the implications of resource extraction.
Kulturanthropologie Notizen
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in the extractive industries is a relatively new but growin... more Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in the extractive industries is a relatively new but growing topic for anthropology. To study CSR, anthropologists often conduct ethnography in corporations, which provides a unique perspective to discern the functioning of corporate power, company–community relations, and the mainstream discourses of global governance. However, ethnography in corporations requires further reflexivity about the anthropologist’s positionality and what it can tell us about the functioning of CSR. I build on my experience conducting an ethnography of the Cerrejón mine in Colombia, one of the biggest in the world, and a dialoguewith other anthropologists’ methodological and theoretical reflections about CSR. I elaborate on the conceptualization of ethnographers’ work in corporations as fuzzy embeddedness, to explore the temporary, ambiguous, and often unacknowledged ways in which the ethnographer is immersed in corporate logics, and becomes part of the hierarchies a...
VH Dover et al. Inclusiones incompletas. Desarollo, participacion ciudadana y consulta previa. Universidad de Antioquia. 340 p. , 2021
The Extractive Industries and Society, 2020
In a water-scarce, coal-producing region of Colombia, frictions are intensifying over the environ... more In a water-scarce, coal-producing region of Colombia, frictions are intensifying over the environmental impact of the diversion of a creek. Through ethnographic observation, this article examines the different positions on what this article refers to as the Bruno Creek Controversy and the enactments of scientific expertise deployed to influence decision making. On the one hand, there are officials from the mining company, who believe the risks associated with the creek diversion are negligible and manageable, potentially offset by interventions implemented under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs. On the other hand, a group of activists, equipped with local knowledge and partnered with experts, claims the project would cause unacceptable damage, furthermore arguing that the creek is a part of a sensible broader ecosystem. At the same time, environmental authorities reveal how their enactment of expertise is bounded to political relations. This article argues that expertise is a performative, ideological, and interactional phenomenon that is authorized by existing power relationships. Controversies such as Bruno Creek, therefore, are highly productive sites for shaping environmental governance, whether through the increasing influence of local communities in decision-making, activist scientists' ability to inform policy, or through a shifting of temporal and geographical scales to better understand the implications of resource extraction.
Journal of Political Ecology, 2020
We analyze environmental impact assessment (EIA) for infrastructure development projects in Latin... more We analyze environmental impact assessment (EIA) for infrastructure development projects in Latin America through the case of the "El Cercado" dam on the Rancheria river in La Guajira Province of northern Colombia. We argue that social and environmental conflicts regarding development projects are not only the result of
deficient EIA implementation but also of historically established power relations and deep-rooted beliefs concerning the economy and socio-spatial relations, of which EIAs are a constituting and enabling element. We focus on governmentality practices from an ethnographic political ecology perspective to trace how the EIA uses the concept of "areas of influence" as a standardized inclusion/exclusion technique, limited by its static nature and functioning as a legitimizing device for governmental interest to expand neoliberal economies in natural resource-strategic regions. Our analysis aims to understand how EIAs used for infrastructure development projects in Latin America have failed to prevent socio-environmental conflicts. At the same time, we question the notions of "space", "influence", and "affected population" behind EIA practices. We conclude that EIAs are a government technology of neoliberal environmental governance that has the potential to exclude the socio-spatial dynamics of local populations while depoliticizing the interests behind the project. With this article, we contribute to the ethnographic approach to governmentality in the context of
infrastructure development projects in Latin America and to the understanding of the role of expert knowledge and technologies of government in neoliberal hydro-politics.
Resumen
En este articulo analizamos los Estudios de Impacto Ambiental (EIA) para proyectos de desarrollo de infraestructura en América Latina, a través del caso de la represa del río Ranchería en Colombia. Argumentamos que los conflictos sociales y ambientales relacionados con proyectos de desarrollo no son sólo el resultado de una deficiente implementación de los EIA, sino de relaciones de poder establecidas históricamente y de creencias arraigadas sobre la economía y las relaciones socioespaciales, que con constitutivas y habilitadas por los EIA. Con una mirada desde la ecología política y enfocándonos en las prácticas de la gubernamentalidad, hacemos una aproximación etnográfica al caso para describir cómo el EIA utiliza la delimitación de "áreas de
influencia" como una técnica de inclusión/exclusión estandarizada, limitada por su naturaleza estática y que funciona como un dispositivo legitimador del interés gubernamental para expandir las economías neoliberales en regiones estratégicas por sus recursos naturales. Nuestro análisis apunta a entender cómo los EIA para
proyectos de desarrollo de infraestructura en América Latina han fracasado en la prevención de conflictos socioambientales. Al mismo tiempo, cuestionamos las nociones de "espacio", "influencia" y "población afectada" detrás de las prácticas de los EIA. Concluimos que los EIA son una tecnología de gobierno propia de la gobernanza ambiental neoliberal que tiene el potencial de excluir las dinámicas socioespaciales de la población local al tiempo que despolitiza los intereses detrás del proyecto. Con este artículo, contribuimos a la aproximación etnográfica a la gubernamentalidad en el contexto de los proyectos de desarrollo de infraestructura en América Latina, y a la comprensión del papel del conocimiento experto y las tecnologías de gobierno en la hidropolítica neoliberal.
En este artículo analizamos el uso de los números y la conmensuración en un estudio de impacto am... more En este artículo analizamos el uso de los números y la conmensuración en un estudio de impacto ambiental para una pequeña central hidroeléctrica en el Huila, Colombia. Se presenta cómo los cálculos de valor y equivalencia y el proceso de conmensuración entre distintos esquemas de valores están implícitos en la definición del impacto ambiental y las compensaciones asociadas. Se concluye que un proceso de diferenciación de los números es central para la configuración de la gobernanza ambiental y, por tanto, un campo para la investigación antropológica sobre proyectos de desarrollo.
Thesis Chapters by Susana Carmona Castillo
Tesis para optar al título de Doctora en Antropología, 2019
Tesis para optar al título de Magister en estudios socioespaciales, 2013
Instituto de Estudios Regionales - INER- Universidad de Antioquia. / Institute for Regional Studi... more Instituto de Estudios Regionales - INER- Universidad de Antioquia. / Institute for Regional Studies – INER, of the University of Antioquia, Colombia.
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Papers by Susana Carmona Castillo
Misael Socarrás Ipuana
Alicia Dorado González
Esteban Torres Muriel
Susana Carmona Castillo
Claudia Puerta Silva
Fatima Epieyú Pelaéz
Marcela Epiayu Epiayu
Estefanía Frías Epinayú
Alonis Arregocés
Yasser Santo Durante López
Ilia Gómez Archbold
María José Rubiano
Víctor Valencia Martínez
deficient EIA implementation but also of historically established power relations and deep-rooted beliefs concerning the economy and socio-spatial relations, of which EIAs are a constituting and enabling element. We focus on governmentality practices from an ethnographic political ecology perspective to trace how the EIA uses the concept of "areas of influence" as a standardized inclusion/exclusion technique, limited by its static nature and functioning as a legitimizing device for governmental interest to expand neoliberal economies in natural resource-strategic regions. Our analysis aims to understand how EIAs used for infrastructure development projects in Latin America have failed to prevent socio-environmental conflicts. At the same time, we question the notions of "space", "influence", and "affected population" behind EIA practices. We conclude that EIAs are a government technology of neoliberal environmental governance that has the potential to exclude the socio-spatial dynamics of local populations while depoliticizing the interests behind the project. With this article, we contribute to the ethnographic approach to governmentality in the context of
infrastructure development projects in Latin America and to the understanding of the role of expert knowledge and technologies of government in neoliberal hydro-politics.
Resumen
En este articulo analizamos los Estudios de Impacto Ambiental (EIA) para proyectos de desarrollo de infraestructura en América Latina, a través del caso de la represa del río Ranchería en Colombia. Argumentamos que los conflictos sociales y ambientales relacionados con proyectos de desarrollo no son sólo el resultado de una deficiente implementación de los EIA, sino de relaciones de poder establecidas históricamente y de creencias arraigadas sobre la economía y las relaciones socioespaciales, que con constitutivas y habilitadas por los EIA. Con una mirada desde la ecología política y enfocándonos en las prácticas de la gubernamentalidad, hacemos una aproximación etnográfica al caso para describir cómo el EIA utiliza la delimitación de "áreas de
influencia" como una técnica de inclusión/exclusión estandarizada, limitada por su naturaleza estática y que funciona como un dispositivo legitimador del interés gubernamental para expandir las economías neoliberales en regiones estratégicas por sus recursos naturales. Nuestro análisis apunta a entender cómo los EIA para
proyectos de desarrollo de infraestructura en América Latina han fracasado en la prevención de conflictos socioambientales. Al mismo tiempo, cuestionamos las nociones de "espacio", "influencia" y "población afectada" detrás de las prácticas de los EIA. Concluimos que los EIA son una tecnología de gobierno propia de la gobernanza ambiental neoliberal que tiene el potencial de excluir las dinámicas socioespaciales de la población local al tiempo que despolitiza los intereses detrás del proyecto. Con este artículo, contribuimos a la aproximación etnográfica a la gubernamentalidad en el contexto de los proyectos de desarrollo de infraestructura en América Latina, y a la comprensión del papel del conocimiento experto y las tecnologías de gobierno en la hidropolítica neoliberal.
Thesis Chapters by Susana Carmona Castillo
Misael Socarrás Ipuana
Alicia Dorado González
Esteban Torres Muriel
Susana Carmona Castillo
Claudia Puerta Silva
Fatima Epieyú Pelaéz
Marcela Epiayu Epiayu
Estefanía Frías Epinayú
Alonis Arregocés
Yasser Santo Durante López
Ilia Gómez Archbold
María José Rubiano
Víctor Valencia Martínez
deficient EIA implementation but also of historically established power relations and deep-rooted beliefs concerning the economy and socio-spatial relations, of which EIAs are a constituting and enabling element. We focus on governmentality practices from an ethnographic political ecology perspective to trace how the EIA uses the concept of "areas of influence" as a standardized inclusion/exclusion technique, limited by its static nature and functioning as a legitimizing device for governmental interest to expand neoliberal economies in natural resource-strategic regions. Our analysis aims to understand how EIAs used for infrastructure development projects in Latin America have failed to prevent socio-environmental conflicts. At the same time, we question the notions of "space", "influence", and "affected population" behind EIA practices. We conclude that EIAs are a government technology of neoliberal environmental governance that has the potential to exclude the socio-spatial dynamics of local populations while depoliticizing the interests behind the project. With this article, we contribute to the ethnographic approach to governmentality in the context of
infrastructure development projects in Latin America and to the understanding of the role of expert knowledge and technologies of government in neoliberal hydro-politics.
Resumen
En este articulo analizamos los Estudios de Impacto Ambiental (EIA) para proyectos de desarrollo de infraestructura en América Latina, a través del caso de la represa del río Ranchería en Colombia. Argumentamos que los conflictos sociales y ambientales relacionados con proyectos de desarrollo no son sólo el resultado de una deficiente implementación de los EIA, sino de relaciones de poder establecidas históricamente y de creencias arraigadas sobre la economía y las relaciones socioespaciales, que con constitutivas y habilitadas por los EIA. Con una mirada desde la ecología política y enfocándonos en las prácticas de la gubernamentalidad, hacemos una aproximación etnográfica al caso para describir cómo el EIA utiliza la delimitación de "áreas de
influencia" como una técnica de inclusión/exclusión estandarizada, limitada por su naturaleza estática y que funciona como un dispositivo legitimador del interés gubernamental para expandir las economías neoliberales en regiones estratégicas por sus recursos naturales. Nuestro análisis apunta a entender cómo los EIA para
proyectos de desarrollo de infraestructura en América Latina han fracasado en la prevención de conflictos socioambientales. Al mismo tiempo, cuestionamos las nociones de "espacio", "influencia" y "población afectada" detrás de las prácticas de los EIA. Concluimos que los EIA son una tecnología de gobierno propia de la gobernanza ambiental neoliberal que tiene el potencial de excluir las dinámicas socioespaciales de la población local al tiempo que despolitiza los intereses detrás del proyecto. Con este artículo, contribuimos a la aproximación etnográfica a la gubernamentalidad en el contexto de los proyectos de desarrollo de infraestructura en América Latina, y a la comprensión del papel del conocimiento experto y las tecnologías de gobierno en la hidropolítica neoliberal.