Planetary Mine: Territories of Extraction under Late Capitalism

by Martin Arboleda

A clarion call to rethink natural resource extraction beyond the extractive industriesPlanetary Mine rethinks the politics and territoriality of resource extraction, especially as the mining industry becomes reorganized in the form of logistical networks, and East Asian economies emerge as the new pivot of the capitalist world-system. Through an exploration of the ways in which mines in the Atacama Desert of Chile—the driest in the world—have become intermingled with an expanding constellation of megacities, ports, banks, and factories across East Asia, the book rethinks uneven geographical development in the era of supply chain capitalism. Arguing that extraction entails much more than the mere spatiality of mine shafts and pits, Planetary Mine points towards the expanding webs of infrastructure, of labor, of finance, and of struggle, that drive resource-based industries in the twenty-first century.

Genres: Nonfiction, Economics, Environment, Politics, Theory, Sociology, Ecology

288 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 14, 2020

Reviews

[Kai · Rating 5 out of 5]

10000 foot view of the post-2000s global commodities supercycle, probably the best thing i've read on it in part because of the transnational focus and in part because large portions of the standard marxist analysis of the supercycle have been updated for the volatile 2010s (though the data is sometimes not as updated as it could be for a 2021 book). the focus is on Chile, and in particular copper and gold, but it is decidedly methodologically global, noting how demand, debt, science, and technology from China, U.S., Canada, and ultimately global capital remake the labor markets and urban/rural landscapes of that country. of note to anyone interested in logistics, natural resource extraction, latin america and china. i was (pleasantly) surprised given how the book was marketed that it is very much NOT in the tradition of Latin American critique of "extractivism."

i would say i only disagree, or find confusing, the perspective outlined in chapter 2 which includes an attempted critique of world systems analysis and the concept of imperialism that simply doesn't make sense to me. Arboleda's approach is purportedly influenced by value-form analysis, in particular Postone, but there is a lot of cavalier usage of form/content which sometimes flip (is the state, for example, the "form" which capital takes, or is value the "form" and the state, imperialism, history, etc the content--or expression?). i know it sucks to say this but imo you gotta get into the Geology of Morals chapter to really untangle the form/content/expression/substance beyond traditional hylomorphic schemas. that's neither here nor there tho.

[Kenneth Sutherland · Rating 4 out of 5]

certainly out of my depth in regards to its marxist terminology but regardless succeeds in its aim to paint the interconnected and multidisciplinary web of global extraction as a planetary phenomenon experienced among a growing base of the increasingly tyrannized proletariat class

in an otherwise blackpilling read, Arboleda points to the continuous integration of capitalism in its “grinding down” of the planet and its inhabitants as the trojan horse apparatus for globalized class solidarity in a world where territorial and political demarcations cede relevance to their economic counterparts

[Ietrio · Rating 1 out of 5]

Here's another witch doctor that can summon the wise spirits of the long gone to tell you what to do with what he does not own. All for a very small price.

[Selin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Please get a better copy editor

[fire_on_the_mountain · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you don't have a firm grounding in Marxist theory, and language, you're going to have a tough time with this book. I don't have that, and definitely had a tough time. I feel like there's probably some greater insights than the ones I drew, but they are denied to me behind a wall of jargon. That said, seeing the breadth and depth of change that is underway in Chile has been useful, and all the manifold ways that capital can contort itself to further extract value from people and places is astounding. It's not 'new' per se, as "mines [...] have become intermingled with an expanding constellation of megacities, ports, banks, and factories" as a practice, as any West Virginian can tell you, to perfect the totality of extraction. But the value is seeing it in the 21st century context, and even my limited familiarity with Marxism allows me to get some of that.
So, if you have that grounding, please come back and tell me what I've missed!

[Leif · Rating 3 out of 5]

In which a Chilean Marxist deeply embedded in the dense thicket of contemporary theoretical terminology tries to explain why mining connects everyone. Succeeds partially, but is never as direct, nor clear, nor as precise as one would like. Frustrating.

[Burc · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was reading this with a reading group but ended up breezing through the rest of it today.

So here's a review. I definitely learned things even if the book had some shortcomings.

The empirical premise:

Technological innovations in the mining industry has made it much cheaper to mine. This has made it Asian countries achieve rapid economic growth by mining places in South America. This in turn has triggered a new commodity supercycle/ challenged the existing world system. But there is no new imperial state that has taken the place of the US as hegemon. Rather we have a new form of empire that is first defined by the world market, and only subsequently accounts for the sovereignty of nationstates.

Interesting ideas that I wanted to hear more about:
A materialist theory of the state, an account of empire that doesn't start with struggles between nation states but rather starts out with the world market, different modeas of labor, knowledge, expertise that attend to the different forms of labor that surround the mining industry as well as the people living in company towns.

The basic thesis of the book: the social factory is actually a social mine, the mine is not just a concrete space but also a paradigm with which to think about extractivism and society. This also tells us something new about empire and hegemony in relation to the world market which we can use the tools of value form theory to critique WST.

My issues:
Last, there are a couple of major catches that made me give the book only four stars. First there's a lot of theory that doesn't elucidate the object nor does it say anything new. It's just synthetically bringing together existing work which is sometimes interesting but honestly mostly boring if you've read all that stuff. I kind of wish he would do the theory through the object rather than telling me about it.

Second, I'm highly suspicious about the underlying theory of technology. At times it sounds like he is too comfortable taken for granted that we are in a new "machine age". Are we though? And also even he himself admits that this new "machine age" hasn't produced increasing productivity but has resulted in economic stagnation as well as a new wave of violence that characterizes the extractive state. It feels like technicity is decidedly not a field of historicization, struggle, politiczation here at all.

Last, I'm not sure the Postone stuff works. I find the proposition that the world market precedes individual nation states interesting and provocative. However, the form / content stuff, the universal subjectivity discussions, the automated subject of capital none of these themes are worked out well. They aren't really integrated into the text and at times feel concerns that are exterior to it.

In any case, not a terrible reading experience. it's actually full of provocative insihgts and things that I think are important and worthwhile.

[Rohit · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was hoping this would be a rigorous but concise look at the Chilean mining economy and its relationships and connections with international finance, Chinese manufacturing, Western mining firms, etc from a Marxist perspective. Unfortunately what I got was a largely superficially theoretical text with a thin layer of empirical analysis and data, and heavy heapings of whacky jargon and five-dollar words that sometimes veers into being completely incomprehensible. Can't say I remember much from this book after I've completed reading it, other than a general sense of irritation, that at a certain point turned into amusement at just how hilariously over the top the vocabulary got.

Take this sentence on page 40, for example, which I just randomly flipped to:

"An exploration of the colonial histories and geographies of the last six centuries reveals how natural-resource frontiers are internally related to the constitution of the very fabric of modernity".

???? Could you not just say, "The history of colonialism reveals how natural-resource frontiers are central to the very fabric of modernity"? What the hell does "internally related" mean here? And why does every goddamn sentence sound like this? This one isn't even that bad compared to some other sentences, and even entire paragraphs.

I don't actually want to rag on the author too much though, he seems like a smart fella all things considered, and when he gets into more empirical on-the-ground descriptions the book actually does get pretty interesting, or at least, readable. He should have dispensed with all the weird theory stuff, which ultimately does not add much of anything, and stuck with concrete materialist analysis. I'm gonna put the blame on whichever nerd at Verso did the "editing" for this. Somebody please give him a wedgie and stuff him in a locker so he can have a good long think about how he should do his job.

[August Bourré · Rating 3 out of 5]

A couple problems with this book: first, the use of jargon was appalling and often seemed to be more about in-group signalling rather than necessary technical language (in fact, sometimes terms were used incorrectly to add complexity to what should have been a straightforward sentence using plain language).

Additionally, the book eventually went from being about a new look at extraction under late capitalism (the how, the why, the consequences) to being more about using extraction under late capitalism as a Trojan horse to centre certain mostly-unpublished, late-career notebooks of Marx in certain academic discussions. I’m not interested in intramural Marxist beard-pulling, and I was irritated that the book shifted focus to that in its latter half.

[Eric Bottorff · Rating 2 out of 5]

There’s some real insight here and important ground that is covered. But the author just has no idea how to distinguish between useful and useless jargon, which leads to a lot of bad writing and some occasionally very sloppy thinking. Wish this were written by a well-read journalist instead of an academic.

[Muhammed Nijim · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good application of Marxist theory. I was not interested so much in learning about mining in so much as I was intrigued by the application of Marxist theory in the global context. overall, good and contemporary analysis. The author did not take Marx's insights as is but added some to make her view contemporaneous and in line with today's shifts of neoliberalism.

[Leonardo Marques · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ousado, combina a bibliografia marxista sobre forma-valor, geralmente bastante abstrata, com uma discussão empírica extremamente interessante sobre as articulações entre mineração no norte do Chile e a expansão da China. Nem sempre funciona, mas tem uma quantidade incrível de insights.

[Casey Mathur · Rating 4 out of 5]

Somewhat weak analysis of imperialism, but very interesting exploration of commodity chains following global land grabs. Too postone-influenced for me at times.

[Dan Pal · Rating 5 out of 5]

An exceptionally slow but satisfying read. Used as basis for thesis framework.

[Noaelisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dnf (maar niet aan m’n docent vertellen)

[Shreya U.K. · Rating 4 out of 5]

i hate this book because i barely understand it. other than that, its pretty incredible.