Anna Preiser is a University Assistant (Prae-Doc) at the Institute of Political Science at the University of Vienna, Austria. Her doctoral project focuses - from a political-economic and political-ecological and perspective - on socio-ecological conflicts of mining and environmental policy in Peru. She studied International Development (University of Vienna) and International Management (WU Vienna). She made several study stays (University of the Pacific), as a visiting researcher (Catholic University of Peru), and field research in Peru.

Research project as a fellow of CALAS (with Pabel Camilo López Flores )

Title: Post-extractivist horizons in Bolivia and Peru: Socio-environmental dimension of the crisis and impacts of social movements and international actors

Abstract: A current characteristic in South America is expressed in the expansion of the extractivist border. At the same time, the effects of climate change and environmental problems such as deforestation, soil degradation, water, and environmental pollution are increasingly evident and worrying. In this context, in most of the countries of the region, socio-environmental conflicts have marked the 'eco-territorial turn' in Latin America (Svampa, 2019) and are placing in strong questioning and dispute the territorial policies of the States and governments, challenging the social and ecological costs as well as environmental racism towards indigenous peoples (Svampa, 2019; Martínez-Alier, 2004), the multiple inequalities that they generate and the effects of the “development” itself based on unlimited economic growth. At the same time, alternative proposals arise with a post-extractivist scope, demanding a new relationship between society and nature (Gudynas, 2012; Acosta / Brand 2017). Likewise, in recent years the influence of international norms and actors towards the ecological dimension and collective rights has been accentuating. However, its application seems insufficient and/or contrasting in relation to the demands of social movements. We propose an exploratory and comparative analysis of the changes and/or continuities of extractivist policies with a focus on environmental norms and collective rights in Bolivia and Peru and the possible horizons of change towards a post-extractivism, showing, on the one hand, of the effects of the struggles and ecoterritorial demands of social subjects and, on the other hand, the role of international norms and actors, particularly of European cooperation, their form of influence and type of impacts on national norms and policies and the degree of real appropriation by the States in both countries.