Duke University Press Resource Radicals: From Petro-Nationalism to Post-Extractivism in Ecuador (Radical Américas)

In 2007, the left came to power in Ecuador. In the years that followed, the “twenty-first-century socialist” government and a coalition of grassroots activists came to blows over the extraction of natural resources. Each side declared the other a perversion of leftism and the principles of socioeconomic equality, popular empowerment, and anti-imperialism. In Resource Radicals, Thea Riofrancos unpacks the conflict between these two leftisms: on the one hand, the administration's resource nationalism and focus on economic development; and on the other, the anti-extractivism of grassroots activists who condemned the government's disregard for nature and indigenous communities. In this archival and ethnographic study, Riofrancos expands the study of resource politics by decentering state resource policy and locating it in a field of political struggle populated by actors with conflicting visions of resource extraction. She demonstrates how Ecuador's commodity-dependent economy and history of indigenous uprisings offer a unique opportunity to understand development, democracy, and the ecological foundations of global capitalism. Review "Resource Radicals presents an insightful first-hand account of fierce political conflict over extractivism within the Ecuadorian Left during the era of Rafael Correa's governance.... The book's analysis...offers a timely contribution to critical scholarship."--Sibo Chen "Resilience" (4/8/2021 12:00:00 AM) "A complex and nuanced understanding of the praxis of politics in Ecuador during this time-period.... A remarkable first-hand account of the internectine conflict within the left during the ten years that Rafael Correa was in power."--Francis Adams "European Review of Latin American and Caribbean Studies" (12/1/2020 12:00:00 AM) "Through archival and ethnographic research, [Riofrancos] explores the conditions and consequences of the radical politicization of resource extraction in what she calls two leftisms.... She concludes with crucial reflections about the dilemmas of resource dependency for both the Left in power and the Left in resistance."--Nicole Fabricant "NACLA Report on the Americas" (3/18/2021 12:00:00 AM) " Resource Radicals presents an insightful first-hand account of fierce political conflict over extractivism within the Ecuadorian Left during the era of Rafael Correa's governance.... The book's analysis...offers a timely contribution to critical scholarship."--Sibo Chen "LSE Review of Books" (3/31/2021 12:00:00 AM) "By examining how activists envisioned a post-petroleum future, Riofrancos transcends the superficial debates on the legacy of the Pink Tide and, in turn, helps chart a path forward for creating a society as equitable as it is ecological."--Jared Olson "Los Angeles Review of Books" (11/1/2020 12:00:00 AM) "[Riofranco's] scholarship is an example of internationalist solidarity in critical practice, the kind to which we may all aspire, and to which our current moment demands."--Hilary Goodfriend "Jacobin Magazine" (7/1/2020 12:00:00 AM) " Resource Radicals is an insightful and ultimately optimistic interpretation of social mobilization around natural resource extraction in Ecuador. Thea Riofrancos eschews simple resource curse theory, viewing mobilization as a potential pathway toward more productive modes of governing extractive industry. Sensitive to both anti-extractivist and 'Pink Tide' approaches to resource extraction, she offers a nuanced analysis of resource politics and the complex challenges facing regimes that seek to govern the subsoil for progressive change."--Anthony Bebbington, coauthor of "Governing Extractive Industries: Politics, Histories, Ideas" "This is a valuable, sensitive, and generous study of the new shapes that left politics has taken in the twenty-first century as crises of ecology and inequality swirl together. It's an essential basis for understanding the challenges ahead."--Jedediah Purdy, author of "This Land