TY - JOUR
T1 - 'Mine the volume'
T2 - excess and the voluminous ecological politics of capitalist frontiers
AU - Collins, Yolanda Ariadne
AU - Reeves-Evison, Theo
AU - Barlow, Matt
AU - Cole, Lydia E.S.
N1 - Funding: The authors benefitted from internal funding made available through the St Andrews Interdisciplinary Research Support Fund.
PY - 2025/3/17
Y1 - 2025/3/17
N2 - Mining frontiers are moving ever further beyond Earth's surface, as new subterranean realms, the seafloor, the atmosphere and outer space increasingly come into the purview of entrepreneurial activity. In this paper, we deploy an environmental governmentality analytic to examine mining as a site-specific, intervening activity that brings the relationship between these different material spaces into view. We recognise that as mining expands through technological advancement ever further beyond its previous terrestrial foundations, it builds on and deepens colonial environmental governance strategies. We argue that as it does so, efforts to govern mining are likely to be increasingly challenged by its ‘excess’, by which we mean the matter that surpasses surficial enclosures and goes on to produce unintended physical and social consequences for other spaces and places. We construct our argument by examining secondary data on mining at three resource frontiers at varying stages of exploitation and associated governance: (i) surface mining during European colonialisation of the Amazon Basin; (ii) ongoing preparations for deep-sea mining in the Clarion-Clipperton Fracture Zone of the Pacific Ocean; and (iii) the prospect of asteroid mining in outer space. Overall, the paper draws attention to the overlapping nature of the planet's voluminous, material spaces and its ability to frustrate environmental governance efforts. It offers a voluminous analysis across material spaces to burgeoning debates within political ecology.
AB - Mining frontiers are moving ever further beyond Earth's surface, as new subterranean realms, the seafloor, the atmosphere and outer space increasingly come into the purview of entrepreneurial activity. In this paper, we deploy an environmental governmentality analytic to examine mining as a site-specific, intervening activity that brings the relationship between these different material spaces into view. We recognise that as mining expands through technological advancement ever further beyond its previous terrestrial foundations, it builds on and deepens colonial environmental governance strategies. We argue that as it does so, efforts to govern mining are likely to be increasingly challenged by its ‘excess’, by which we mean the matter that surpasses surficial enclosures and goes on to produce unintended physical and social consequences for other spaces and places. We construct our argument by examining secondary data on mining at three resource frontiers at varying stages of exploitation and associated governance: (i) surface mining during European colonialisation of the Amazon Basin; (ii) ongoing preparations for deep-sea mining in the Clarion-Clipperton Fracture Zone of the Pacific Ocean; and (iii) the prospect of asteroid mining in outer space. Overall, the paper draws attention to the overlapping nature of the planet's voluminous, material spaces and its ability to frustrate environmental governance efforts. It offers a voluminous analysis across material spaces to burgeoning debates within political ecology.
KW - Mining
KW - Deep sea
KW - Outer space
KW - Amazon basin
KW - Environmental governmentality
KW - Volume
U2 - 10.1177/25148486251323823
DO - 10.1177/25148486251323823
M3 - Article
SN - 2514-8486
VL - Online First
SP - 1
EP - 23
JO - Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space
JF - Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space
ER -