Powered by Distance: Collective mobilisation born in the peripheries and the case of anti-mining activism in Barroso (Portugal)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1285/i20356609v19n3p953-970Keywords:
Energy transition, Green extractivism, Peripherals, Portugal, Social movementsAbstract
This article defines the peripherals as a vast and heterogeneous group of people excluded from the real or perceived centres of decision-making, prosperity and recognition and argues that multidimensional processes of peripheralisation in the context of accelerated socio-structural transition are capable of shifting social identities, therefore generating new political cleavages and rekindling forms of collective mobilisation.
Such notions were applied to the green transition pushed by the European Union and specifically to the case of the lithium exploration projects in the north of Portugal. If the socio-structural shock represented by the energy transition depends on objective conditions of peripherality that facilitate extractivism and dispossession of vulnerable populations, the multiplication of peripheries can also bring about reinforced social identities, reshape conflict and result in a wave of collective mobilisation.
Through the lens of social movements and resorting to a triangulation of sources and data, it has been proven that the anti-mining activist groups in Barroso heightened the feelings of subjective peripherality – economic, political, geographic and cultural – in order to gather popular support, build international and intersectional alliances and go beyond traditional politics.
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