Abstract
Gender and Natural Resource Extraction in Latin America: Feminist Engagements with Geopolitical Positionality
Abstract: This article resituates the debate on approaches to gender in contexts of natural resource extraction in Latin America and, subsequently, outlines an intersectional, feminist proposal focused on geopolitical positionality, which points to the complex and global power relations that (re)position individuals and collectivities residing in spaces that have geopolitical value in a gendered way. This article draws on both empirical and theoretical research in/on extractive contexts, focusing on women, masculinities, and sexual markets. By paying special attention to the diversity of women’s experiences and productive activities in extractive contexts, this article visibilizes their agency, as well as generates a more accurate account of how extractivist regimes operate and reconfigure gender relations on a local level. This expands existing approaches, allowing a situated, feminist critique, which helps to refine the study of gender and gendered power relations in their intersection with processes of natural resource extraction.