Jenni Viitala - Why is the Finnish government underwriting loans for mining in Ecuador?

This month we were delighted to be joined by our colleague Jenni Viitala. Jenni did her PhD at the Department of Anthropology at the University of Helsinki and is currently working on a post-doc at Aalto University. In this episode, Jenni tells us about the work she undertook during her doctorate. This monograph explored how and where planetary metal supply chains connect and disconnect. In particular, Jenni looked at what happens in particular spaces of extraction, such as at the physical gold mining site in the Ecuadorian Amazon and where the mined gold is refined in Finland. These two disparate places are intertwined in surprising ways through the workings of the global supply chain and the production of gold. She unpacks how the sites of extraction and refining are co-dependent. These types of connect are underexplored in academic research. Jenni gives us insight into both of the places themselves and their connections and where there is potential for disconnect as well. Join us for this interesting dive into two unique sites involved in global extractivism. Read Jenni’s monograph, Tracing gold : An ethnography across a planetary supply chain, here: http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-84-1264-9Check out Jenni’s research profile here: https://www.nodus.aalto.fi/nodusians/jenni-viitala.