Worlds of Gray and Green: Mineral Extraction as Ecological Practice

Sociologist and SEI’s 2023 Environmental Humanities Visiting Fellow Sebastián Ureta, explores how the waste produced from mining interacts with human and non-human ecologies. In this talk, Sebastián Ureta will draw on his recently published book with Patricio Flores, 'Worlds of Gray and Green', to challenge us to rethink extraction as ecological practice. This book offers a rich ethnographic exploration of the waste produced by Chile’s El Teniente, the world’s largest underground mine. Deposited in a massive dam, the waste — known as tailings — engages with human and non-human entities in multiple ways through a process the authors call geosymbiosis. For more information about this event click here.Timestamps 00:55 Introduction - Thom van Dooren 05:20 Extracting Critical Minerals for the Energy Transition - Sebastián Ureta 33:20 Politics of Weakness - Sophie Chao 38:20 Trying to Regulate Extraction in a Volatile Environment - Susan Park SpeakersAssociate Professor Sebastián Ureta, Universidad Alberto Hurtado Dr Sophie Chao, University of Sydney Professor Susan Park, University of Sydney Associate Professor Thom van Dooren (Chair), University of Sydney Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.