Svenja Schöneich, M.A.
Photo: Svenja Schöneich
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Dissertationsprojekt
Living on a Time Bomb – Local perspectives and responses on fracking, oil and gas projects in a rural community in Veracruz, Mexico
The Mexican Gulf coast area in the state of Veracruz is an important region for oil and gas extraction since the very beginning of hydrocarbon production in Mexico. The area is marked by intensive fossil fuel extractions which have been realized mainly by PEMEX, the Mexican state-owned company that is omnipresent within the territory of many local communities. The extraction activities in general are deeply interlinked with the living conditions of the local people and profoundly inscribed in the political and socio-economic landscape, as can be observed in the campesino community Emiliano Zapata. The village with the revolutionary sounding name looks back on a history of oil and gas extraction since the 1950s when PEMEX started its activities in the area. The multidimensional relationships with PEMEX and their extraction activities have significantly affected the forms of land use, the cultural concepts and the attachment to the territory. Recently those dynamics have been challenged by the comprehensive liberal restructuring within the energy sector, known as the Energy Reform 2013/2014. This reform represents the newest aspect of a series of neoliberal policies in Mexico since the 1980s and now officially overturns the 76-year-old monopoly of PEMEX, including further incisive changes within the legal framework of the Energy sector. It therefore consists not only in modifications concerning the national ownership of resources but it also initiates also major changes within the relationship dynamics between company and community and it reshapes preexisting cultural patterns concerning the perception and use of local territory. This dissertation projects aims to analyze shifting cultural concepts, power relations as well as local perceptions and responses to hydrocarbon extraction and recent changes in the national energy sector in a peasant community in Veracruz Mexico.
projects
Bericht im La Jornada Link
Seminario Multisituado del Laboratorio Mixto Internacional Movilidades, Gobernanza y Recursos en la Cuenca Mesoamericana (CIESAS-IRD-FLACSO Costa Rica)
“En defensa del territorio y de la vida”: nuevas luchas desde los pueblos indígenas
Organizadoras: Emilia Velázquez y Victoria Chenaut
CIESAS Golfo, 1º de marzo de 2018, 5 p.m., aula 1
En los últimos años, en varias regiones indígenas del país se han conformado organizaciones locales cuyo objetivo central de lucha es “la defensa del territorio y de la vida”, motivadas por el conocimiento que ha llegado hasta los diferentes pueblos acerca de las múltiples concesiones que el gobierno federal ha otorgado para la exploración, y posible explotación de sus recursos naturales, en particular en el ámbito de la minería y de los hidrocarburos (petróleo y gas). Estas organizaciones, con la celeridad que requiere lo que ellos consideran una “amenaza de muerte” para sus pueblos, han integrado redes de apoyo de distinta índole que les permite desplegar acciones en varios frentes. El estado de Veracruz no ha sido ajeno a estos movimientos, algunos de los cuales se desarrollan en nuestras regiones de estudio, tales como el Totonacapan y la Sierra de Santa Marta. Como estudiosas que a lo largo de muchos años hemos dado cuenta de diversos procesos culturales y sociopolíticos en estas regiones, nos sentimos comprometidas a participar, desde nuestro ámbito académico, en las discusiones que estas organizaciones llevan a cabo.