So, I am breaking the silence on this blog again to share the good news that Martín Arboleda’s Planetary Mine: Territories of Extraction Under Late Capitalism will finally be out with Verso early next year — probably one of the books I am more excited to read soon, blending a political economy of extractive capitalism with planetary urbanization theory.
Planetary Mine rethinks the politics and territoriality of resource extraction, especially as the mining industry becomes reorganized in the form of logistical networks, and East Asian economies emerge as the new pivot of the capitalist world-system. Through an exploration of the ways in which mines in the Atacama Desert of Chile—the driest in the world—have become intermingled with an expanding constellation of megacities, ports, banks, and factories across East Asia, the book rethinks uneven geographical development in the era of supply chain capitalism. Arguing that extraction entails much more than the mere spatiality of mine shafts, Planetary Mine points towards the expanding webs of infrastructure, of finance, and of struggle, that drive resource-based industries.
You can download earlier material by Arboleda related to this project on the Urban Theory Lab’s publications website, and here is a presentation of some of the material from the book:
Urban Political Ecology in the Anthropo-obscene: Interruptions and Possibilities centres on how to organize anew the articulation between emancipatory theory and political activism.
This book is a manifesto for real urban change. Today, our urban areas are held back by corporate greed, loss of public space and rising inequality. This book highlights how cities are locked into unsustainable and damaging practices, and how exciting new routes can be unlocked for real change.
