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Project title

Local environmental resistance to extractivism in Ireland: A feminist environmental justice lens

Primary Funding Agency

Irish Research Council

Co-Funding Organisation(s)

n/a

Lead Organisation

National University of Ireland Galway (NUIG)

Lead Applicant

n/a

Project Abstract

In the context of complex global socio-ecological challenges, the time for an analysis of frontline communities opposing extractivism and its root ideologies, has never been more pressing. Most research focused on community resistance to extractivism centre on the Global South. The North of Ireland is currently facing a boom in mineral exploration licenses given to international mining companies and is extremely vulnerable to environmental injustice. In County Tyrone, Dalradian, a Canadian company, seeks to open a gold mine in the Sperrin Mountains to which a grassroots resistance movement have emerged in response. This project seeks to advance environmental governance and critical human geography scholarship by shedding light on the experiences, practices and processes characterising grassroots resistance to the gold-mining extractive agenda in the Sperrin Mountains. By exploring the environmental conflict taking place in the Sperrins, the project examines the experiences, practices and worldview of the community in relation to their resistance. Situated insight into community experiences and practices is important for understanding why and how people mobilize, articulate and represent their relationship to the environment, as well as how these relate to or oppose those of the state or multinational corporations. A case study approach will be undertaken using ethnographic, activist-researcher methods including participant observation and in-depth interviews. The research draws on feminist perspectives through a feminist political ecology lens that critiques an extractive neoliberal development agenda globally. Further, feminist approaches have been pivotal to uncover differentiated community knowledges and practices. Increasingly, the inclusion of community governance actors and activists in policy planning is acknowledged at multiple scales of environmental governance, from local to international levels. Countering the privileging of techno-scientific and expert narratives, this study aims to highlight local knowledge as vital to advance improved approaches to governance and sustainable development in the context of proposed extractivist practice.

Grant Approved

�72,000.00

Research Hub

n/a

Research Theme

Climate Solutions, Transition Management and Opportunities

Start Date

01/10/2020

Initial Projected Completion Date

01/10/2023