24-106.15 Resource Conflicts in Latin America [digital]

Lehrende: Riccarda Ariane Flemmer

Veranstaltungsart: Seminar

Anzeige im Stundenplan: AM2: Resource Confl.

Semesterwochenstunden: 2

Credits: 4,0

Unterrichtssprache: Englisch

Min. | Max. Teilnehmerzahl: 10 | 24

Weitere Informationen:
Verwendbar in folgenden Studiengängen bzw. Modulen:
- B.A.-Hauptfach Politikwissenschaft: Aufbaumodul 2 - Regieren in inter- und transnationalen Institutionen oder Wahlbereich
- B.Sc. Volkswirtschaftslehre (FSB ab WiSe 2016/17), Ergänzungsfach Regieren in inter- und transnationalen Institutionen: Aufbaumodul 2 - Regieren in inter- und transnationalen Institutionen
- B.A.-Nebenfach Politikwissenschaft: Fachbezogener Wahlbereich

Kommentare/ Inhalte:
Resource extraction fuels conflict in Latin America, especially in the Andes and the Amazon. Conflicts range from symbolic protests to the formation of influential civil society movements and violent clashes between local populations, companies, state and other (armed) actors. Among the manifold reasons for these conflicts are struggles for land rights, competing claims to use resources, contestation about the distribution of benefits and protests against social, environmental and cultural impacts of extractive projects.

Resource conflicts in Latin America are historically embedded into global, regional, and national dynamics. For Europe, Latin America has been a source of natural resources for the world since colonial times. For the world market, main production sites for lithium, copper, soya, ect. are situated in the Andes and the Amazon where they cause major damages to fragile ecosystems. However, for most Latin American countries the export of these resources is a central economic pillar and a regional “commodities consensus” (Svampa 2015) exists, even though governments have different political orientations. At the same time, national, regional and international institutions promote legal frameworks to make extractive industries more sustainable.

The focus of this seminar are the multi-scalar entanglements of conflicts over resource extraction in Latin America. Central topics are the economic, social and political dynamics of extracting different types of natural resources; legal frameworks to protect local populations and mechanisms of participatory environmental governance; underlying development models and questions of “environmental justice”.

Lernziel:
After completing this seminar, students will have gained conceptual and empirical insights on resource conflicts in Latin America. Students will have learned how to understand cases of resource conflicts in the light of historical as well as recent global, regional, and national economic, political and social dynamics. On the level of practical research experiences, students will gain insights on how to plan and carry out (comparative) case studies.

Vorgehen:
Participants need to be willing to engage in group work. Students are actively involved in the seminar through the discussion of selected readings, working groups and presentations. Students will form working groups and present short overviews on prepared readings of key texts as well as they will elaborate a case study.

The seminar is organized in two phases:
In the first phase, introductory sessions will give an overview of historical and recent patterns of resource conflicts in Latin America. Central conceptual issues, such as the rights of affected populations and indigenous peoples’ territories; state- and company-led participatory mechanisms; resistance and social mobilizations. Students will prepare key texts in groups and discuss them in the plenary. In this phase, students will also learn or “reactivate” knowledge about case study research. A general reading list will be provided and then be complemented by topic-specific suggestions. Topics can be adapted according to students’ interests.

In the second phase, student groups will elaborate a case study design and conduct desktop research on a type of resource conflict. Results of the working groups will be presented and discussed in the plenary for feedback from other participants and the course instructor. The group work can be used for the written research papers.
 
The last meeting will serve to summarize the conceptual and empirical insights gained on resource conflicts in Latin America, discuss open questions regarding the research papers and give feedback on the seminar.

• Materials: Slides, presentations and literature will be uploaded to OpenOLAT. some literature can be downloaded via the library system
  
• Interactions: Plenary Zoom sessions and group work phases, weekly online office hours by previous appointment
  
• Platforms: OpenOLAT, Zoom, potentially MSTeams and Padlet etc.
  

Literatur:
These are general recommendations; a detailed reading list will be provided at the beginning of the course.

• Burchard, Hans-Jürgen and Dietz,Kristina (2014): (Neo-)Extractivism - a New Challenge for Development Theory from Latin America. In: Third World Quarterly 35 (3), p. 468-486.
  
• Haarstad, Håvard (2012): New Political Spaces in Latin American Natural Resource Governance. In: Håvard Haarstad (eds.) Extracting Justice? Critical Themes and Challenges in Latin American Natural Resource Governance. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, p. 1-16.
  
• Svampa, Maristella (2015): Commodities Consensus: Neoextractivism and Enclosure of the Commons in Latin America. In: South Atlantic Quarterly 114 (1), p. 65-82. doi:10.1215/00382876-2831290 .
  

Zusätzliche Hinweise zu Prüfungen:
Leistungsanforderungen:
- B.A.-Hauptfach Politikwissenschaft, Aufbaumodul 2 - Regieren in inter- und transnationalen Institutionen: Studienleistungen (siehe A); zusätzlich kann in dem Seminar eine Hausarbeit als Modulabschlussprüfung des AM 2 absolviert werden (siehe B).
- B.A.-Hauptfach Politikwissenschaft, Wahlbereich: Studienleistungen (siehe A); Hausarbeit nicht möglich.
- B.Sc. Volkswirtschaftslehre: Studienleistungen (siehe A) und Hausarbeit (siehe B).
- B.A.-Nebenfach Politikwissenschaft, Fachbezogener Wahlbereich: Studienleistungen (siehe A); Hausarbeit nicht möglich.

A) Studienleistungen (unbenotet):
Reading of selected texts, work in small groups, participation in group presentations, roundtable discussions.


B) Modulprüfung:
Prüfungsart: Hausarbeit
Written assignment: research paper 4.500 words plus reference list (min.: 15 titles). The assignment may be co-authored, in that case, 500 words (per additional author) must be added. Please consult the guidelines and discuss your topic with the course instructor before writing and submitting your paper. This will allow you to have a better idea of the structure and ensures the feasibility regarding the time and space you have. The language of the paper can be English or German.

• Bewertungsschema: benotet (RPO)
  
• Umfang: 4.500 words
  
• Abgabetermin/ Date for the submission of the paper: 07.03.2021
  
• Abgabeort: The paper has to be submitted electronically by email as PDF to the course instructor.
  
• Sprache/Language: The course language is English! However, papers and assignments can be submitted in English or German!
  
• Ausgabeort der bewerteten Prüfungsleistung: Via Email