Contested extractivism: impact assessment, public engagement, and environmental knowledge production in Alaska's Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta
For large extractive mineral projects, Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) processes function in part as a procedural tool to adjudicate the legitimacy of divergent environmental truth claims. Successful anti-extraction movements work to litigate divergent knowledge claims in the public arena, but...
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University of Arizona
2020
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ftunivarizonaojs:oai:journals.uair.arizona.edu:article/23828 2023-05-15T17:05:40+02:00 Contested extractivism: impact assessment, public engagement, and environmental knowledge production in Alaska's Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta Tollefson, Jonathan Panikkar, Bindu National Science Foundation Award #1642226 2020-12-30 application/pdf https://journals.uair.arizona.edu/index.php/JPE/article/view/23828 https://doi.org/10.2458/v27i1.23828 eng eng University of Arizona https://journals.uair.arizona.edu/index.php/JPE/article/view/23828/22507 https://journals.uair.arizona.edu/index.php/JPE/article/downloadSuppFile/23828/788 https://journals.uair.arizona.edu/index.php/JPE/article/view/23828 doi:10.2458/v27i1.23828 Copyright (c) 2020 Jonathan Tollefson, Bindu Panikkar http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 CC-BY Journal of Political Ecology; Vol 27, No 1 (2020); 1166-1188 1073-0451 10.2458/jpe.v27i1 Human Geography Social Science Environmental Policy Environmental Justice Natural Resource Management info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion Peer-reviewed Article 2020 ftunivarizonaojs https://doi.org/10.2458/v27i1.23828 https://doi.org/10.2458/jpe.v27i1 2021-02-22T09:20:19Z For large extractive mineral projects, Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) processes function in part as a procedural tool to adjudicate the legitimacy of divergent environmental truth claims. Successful anti-extraction movements work to litigate divergent knowledge claims in the public arena, but few anti-extraction communities have access to a broad public audience. This article examines the proposed Donlin Gold mine in southwestern Alaska, a locally divisive yet publicly invisible extraction controversy, to understand how communities contest the boundaries of knowledge production and legitimacy set out by EIS procedures without the benefit of broad public awareness. Through a multi-method analysis of the public engagement segment of Donlin's Draft EIS, we find that anti-Donlin activists worked to construct environmental knowledge that drew jointly on claims to local knowledge and scientific expertise through a temporary assemblage of local activists and external consultants. The contested epistemic understandings of residents, expert consultants, and state and federal regulators further reveal the role of regulatory processes in constructing and maintaining boundaries of epistemic legitimacy, while also pointing to emergent possibilities for social action based in locally-situated environmental truth claims.Key Words: Environmental Impact Statement, mining, truth claims, Donlin Gold mine, Alaska Article in Journal/Newspaper Kuskokwim Alaska Yukon Journals at the University of Arizona Yukon Journal of Political Ecology 27 1 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Journals at the University of Arizona |
op_collection_id |
ftunivarizonaojs |
language |
English |
topic |
Human Geography Social Science Environmental Policy Environmental Justice Natural Resource Management |
spellingShingle |
Human Geography Social Science Environmental Policy Environmental Justice Natural Resource Management Tollefson, Jonathan Panikkar, Bindu Contested extractivism: impact assessment, public engagement, and environmental knowledge production in Alaska's Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta |
topic_facet |
Human Geography Social Science Environmental Policy Environmental Justice Natural Resource Management |
description |
For large extractive mineral projects, Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) processes function in part as a procedural tool to adjudicate the legitimacy of divergent environmental truth claims. Successful anti-extraction movements work to litigate divergent knowledge claims in the public arena, but few anti-extraction communities have access to a broad public audience. This article examines the proposed Donlin Gold mine in southwestern Alaska, a locally divisive yet publicly invisible extraction controversy, to understand how communities contest the boundaries of knowledge production and legitimacy set out by EIS procedures without the benefit of broad public awareness. Through a multi-method analysis of the public engagement segment of Donlin's Draft EIS, we find that anti-Donlin activists worked to construct environmental knowledge that drew jointly on claims to local knowledge and scientific expertise through a temporary assemblage of local activists and external consultants. The contested epistemic understandings of residents, expert consultants, and state and federal regulators further reveal the role of regulatory processes in constructing and maintaining boundaries of epistemic legitimacy, while also pointing to emergent possibilities for social action based in locally-situated environmental truth claims.Key Words: Environmental Impact Statement, mining, truth claims, Donlin Gold mine, Alaska |
author2 |
National Science Foundation Award #1642226 |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Tollefson, Jonathan Panikkar, Bindu |
author_facet |
Tollefson, Jonathan Panikkar, Bindu |
author_sort |
Tollefson, Jonathan |
title |
Contested extractivism: impact assessment, public engagement, and environmental knowledge production in Alaska's Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta |
title_short |
Contested extractivism: impact assessment, public engagement, and environmental knowledge production in Alaska's Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta |
title_full |
Contested extractivism: impact assessment, public engagement, and environmental knowledge production in Alaska's Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta |
title_fullStr |
Contested extractivism: impact assessment, public engagement, and environmental knowledge production in Alaska's Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta |
title_full_unstemmed |
Contested extractivism: impact assessment, public engagement, and environmental knowledge production in Alaska's Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta |
title_sort |
contested extractivism: impact assessment, public engagement, and environmental knowledge production in alaska's yukon-kuskokwim delta |
publisher |
University of Arizona |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
https://journals.uair.arizona.edu/index.php/JPE/article/view/23828 https://doi.org/10.2458/v27i1.23828 |
geographic |
Yukon |
geographic_facet |
Yukon |
genre |
Kuskokwim Alaska Yukon |
genre_facet |
Kuskokwim Alaska Yukon |
op_source |
Journal of Political Ecology; Vol 27, No 1 (2020); 1166-1188 1073-0451 10.2458/jpe.v27i1 |
op_relation |
https://journals.uair.arizona.edu/index.php/JPE/article/view/23828/22507 https://journals.uair.arizona.edu/index.php/JPE/article/downloadSuppFile/23828/788 https://journals.uair.arizona.edu/index.php/JPE/article/view/23828 doi:10.2458/v27i1.23828 |
op_rights |
Copyright (c) 2020 Jonathan Tollefson, Bindu Panikkar http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.2458/v27i1.23828 https://doi.org/10.2458/jpe.v27i1 |
container_title |
Journal of Political Ecology |
container_volume |
27 |
container_issue |
1 |
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1766060355511910400 |