Extractivism in persons: reproduction of social forces and relationships in the course of the natural resource development

Natural resources permeate social existence, providing our way of life and being invariably present in our thinking about development and well-being. The last decades of unprecedented intensity and scale of extractive industries show that today natural resources are a force that revitalizes sociality. This article is devoted to the social reproduction of extractivism, a system of meanings and practices that organizes the extraction of substances from the environment for profit. In addition to the impact on landscapes and the environmental condition, the natural resource development simultaneously organizes social structures, political mechanisms, and social relations. On the basis of current scientific papers, an attempt is made to systematically characterize the main social forces of extractivism, with special emphasis on common forms of interaction and specific norms. Governance structures promote natural resource extraction as the basis for social development. In the pursuit of quick profits, accompanied by predatory natural resource exploitation, mining companies clearly neglect many negative consequences. Supported by mechanisms of juridical processes, practices of extractive project expertise, and the ideological work of the media, coalitions of government agencies and businesses legitimize many social, political, and environmental costs of extractivism. The local communities in resource extraction areas, as well as the industry workers, directly feel the contradictions of the extractive industries, which are responsible for both prosperity and disadvantage. In recent decades, social movements and activists who strive to challenge the existing social order have become influential social forces. An empirically rich analysis of extractivism as a configuration of relationships between social forces occupying different positions and having competing interests and opportunities seems promising.