Post-Extractivist Horizons in Latin America: Between Utopias and Struggles for Re-Existence Against Neo-Extractivism

The triumph of neoliberal globalisation has been presented as the end of history, with no viable alternatives available. In Latin America, however, the structural adjustment programmes imposed by international financial institutions and the increased role of transnational corporations were resisted by social and popular movements that eventually translated into progressive politics and policies. Nevertheless, despite anti-capitalist and pro-environment rhetoric, extraction of natural resources has continued to expand under progressive governments, with devastating effects on environmental justice and Indigenous peoples’ rights. Focusing on socio-territorial struggles for re-existence in Bolivia through the cases of peasant struggle in Tariquía and the establishment of the National Coordinator for the Defence of Indigenous Territories and Protected Areas (CONTIOCAP), we investigate how Indigenous and peasant organisations resist extractive projects and organise collective life in alternative ways. We show how social actors, especially women, defend, propose and imagine post-extractivist alternatives as a societal horizon – both utopian and possible – to the current socio-ecological crisis, in a context of disillusionment with the government’s rhetoric of vivir bien as a state-led ecological and Indigenous policy. We argue that by defending life, women try to heal the human and more-than-human relationality in the territories impacted by progressive neo-extractivism.