Georgia de Leeuw have done work on Swedish mining and the green steel transition in Sápmi by looking at extractivism as an affective investment, a fantasmatic promise of happiness in the future. She have for instance shown that local proponents of extraction in fact are strongly discomforted by extraction (e.g. towns being dismantled, environments disappearing), but align with the fantasy of extraction nonetheless, despite. She have argued that the psychoanalytical reading that she have proposed, leaning on Sara Ahmed, is an important reading to dismantle the notion of anti-extractive (e.g. Sami or environmental) activities and positions as emotional and irrational relative to a normalized extractive mentality. She is now currently working on publishing the part of the research that I have done in this regard that deals with these anti-extractive experiences, the killjoys if you will, or the willful as read from the position of those aligned with the rationale of extractivism. This presentation will outline the plan for an article on Sami experiences when coming in contact with extractive mentalities and projects, and the alternative desire lines other than extraciton that they orientate toward in definitions of a happy future.
Bio PhD in Political Science at Lund university focused on iron ore mining and hydrogen-based steel decarbonization in the Swedish north, or indigenous Sápmi. Now: Post-Doctoral Researcher at Human Rights Studies, Department of History at Lund University focusing on grievances in green transition designs in Swedish municipalities.
