7/8 October 2025, Mexico City

International conference organized jointly by Extractivism.de, the Área de Economía Agraria, Desarrollo Rural y Campesinado of the Universidad Autónoma Metropilitana, Unidad Xochimilco, and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation

Conference Description:

The world is entering a new energy era driven by global decarbonization and intensified by multiple concurrent crises. This transition substantially increases demand for raw materials essential to renewable energy and new technologies, even as fossil fuel consumption persists. Within this transformation, Latin America plays a crucial role due to its abundant natural resources, which hold nearly one-third of the global reserves of copper, bauxite, silver, coal, and oil, as well as over a third of the strategically critical minerals necessary for sustainable industrial transitions. The region also remains a vital supplier of global staple foods. Historically dominated by extractivist development models, Latin America finds itself repositioned in the current geopolitical landscape. Initiatives like Europe’s “Green Deal” and “Global Gateway,” the US Inflation Reduction Act, and China’s Belt and Road Initiative reflect growing geopolitical interests. Trump’s renewed presidency is further reshaping US-Latin American relations, marked by rising tariffs and heightened geopolitical pressures.

However, new resource flows remain largely unequal, offering limited transfer of technology or knowledge to Latin America, thus restricting local development opportunities. The impact on regional regulations, investment, and diplomatic relations remains uncertain. Yet, visible shifts are evident, such as Brazil’s deepening ties with China, Argentina’s openness to the US, and Mexico’s and Bolivia’s evolving strategies for extracting critical raw materials. Simultaneously, indigenous and peasant communities actively resist the expansion of mining and energy projects, illustrating tensions around resource governance. Meanwhile, governments and corporations legitimize ongoing extraction through environmental certifications and sustainability clauses—a phenomenon termed green extractivism. Therefore, Latin America faces multiple challenges. The region must navigate a complex new geopolitical dynamic with the Global North, requiring it to provide essential resources for the global energy transition. At the same time, this situation presents a geopolitical window of opportunity for Latin America’s development. However, it remains unclear how the region can leverage this opportunity effectively through appropriate strategies and agency.

Our conference will examine the circumstances under which structural transformations, reform strategies, and their agencies in Mexico and Latin America manifest. Specifically, we aim to discuss the geopolitical and geoeconomic impacts, as well as the economic dimensions, in a comparative perspective with North Africa and the Maghreb.

We request scholars to discuss:

• Geopolitical shifts: What key geopolitical dynamics are currently shaping the region, and who are the potential winners and losers? Are there progressive Latin American and Mexican responses regarding regional integration or domestic structural changes?
• State strategies: How are Mexico and other Latin American countries adapting their economic, foreign, and development policies in response to these geopolitical challenges?
• Social and political actors: Which social movements, civil society actors, or economic groups drive these transformations, and who might resist or block them?
• State-business relations: How does the geopolitical reconfiguration influence state-business interactions, and in what ways do corporate interests impact, or even jeopardize, the region’s path toward an energy transition?

Project Description:

Extractivism is a collaborative research project funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). It is based at the University of Kassel and Philipps-University of Marburg. The project aims to study natural resource extractivism in Latin America, the Maghreb, and globally. Our objective is to contextualize extractivist societies within the broader climate crisis issues, geopolitical shifts, rising global inequalities, and energy transitions. Understanding what sustainability and decarbonization mean for countries that rely on the extraction and export of raw materials and natural resources for their development is essential. Extractivism investigates the „dark sides of sustainability“ in relation to alternatives in the Global South and their reintegration into a global landscape undergoing multiple transformations. We strive to comprehend how and under what conditions North-South and South-South relations will evolve, particularly in a scenario where energy security and the geopolitics of raw materials become increasingly significant. We integrate a solid empirical focus with theoretical work, connecting field research and primary data with qualitative and quantitative analysis to provide essential transregional comparisons. We aim to create new theories and methods in cross-area studies by examining whether and why similar social, cultural, and political patterns emerge in different world regions. Scope of the Conference: The Extractivism Flying Academy framework has two main objectives. First, it aims to facilitate in-depth discussions among scholars in different regions by bringing together academics from various disciplines, including political science, economics, sociology, anthropology, sustainability studies, and history. This interdisciplinary approach is essential for fostering knowledge transfer within a South-South framework, and we are keen to invite academics from different parts of the world. Second, the conference seeks to establish political spaces where high-ranking politicians and government representatives can engage in dialogue and explore policy alternatives grounded in solid empirical, theoretical, and methodological foundations. Thus far, Extractivism has successfully hosted several 2-day conferences, each with around 30 active participants.

Conference Date:

Tuesday, October 7, and Wednesday, October 8, 2025, in Mexico City.

Deadline:

Please submit a paper title, your institutional affiliation, a brief biography, and an abstract of up to 250 words in a single PDF by May 16, 2025, to . We have a limited budget to support travel and accommodation expenses.