| By A. Bebbington and J. Bury | Published in Subterranean Struggles: New Dynamics of Mining, Oil and Gas in Latin America. Edited by A. Bebbington and J. Bury. Austin: University of Texas Press. |
Excerpt: In Chapter 1 of this book we made several strong claims regarding the relationships between the subsoil and Latin American political economy as well as the relationships between the subsoil and political ecology. We argued that since the early 1990s, the extraction of subsoil resources in Latin America has taken on forms that are fundamentally different from those of earlier periods , notwithstanding the long histories of mining and hydrocarbon investment within which contemporary extraction is rooted. We also claimed that extraction has become central to the region’s more general political economy. At the same time, we argued that a close look at extraction in Latin America would support the claim that the subsoil has a special significance for political ecology, one that has thus far been undervalued. Ultimately, we believe that these claims have been amply demonstrated. The purpose of this concluding chapter is to support this assertion.