Hannah Porada | University of Amsterdam (original) (raw)

Papers by Hannah Porada

Research paper thumbnail of Entangled territorial controversies: Contesting mining, territorial ordering, and authority in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala

This article examines territorial disputes in the Palajunoj Valley of Quetzaltenango, Guatemala's... more This article examines territorial disputes in the Palajunoj Valley of Quetzaltenango, Guatemala's second largest city located in the western highlands. Drawing on our field research, we explore how dominant territory-making practices and indigenous-led resistance play out over an emerging municipal territorial ordering plan that gets interwoven with disputes over large-scale mining, waste disposal, and municipal authority amid wider urban-rural marginalization and tensions. We innovatively combine the notions of territory, territorial ordering governmentality, and the echelons (or levels) of rights framework to unpack the different layers on which dominant actor alliances' territorialization strategies and the responses of territorial defense movements emerge. Departing from an understanding that the disputes in the valley are not only about resources, but also entwine struggles over rules, authority, and discourses, we make a twofold argument. First, we argue that the rulinggroup's existing territory-making practices and new territorial ordering techniques coincide across the echelons, building on and reinforcing stark power imbalances. Second, we argue that indigenous-led, territory-based resistance movements engage in diverse strategies of contestation to articulate shared concerns around externally-imposed territorial interventions across echelons, but are challenged by micropolitical fragmentation, threats and instances of violence, and fragile multi-scalar support networks. Our analysis suggests that future territorial defense depends on the strengthening of multi-scalar and multi-actor alliances thatwhile acknowledging difference and tensions within and among resisting actors − devise their strategies along the four interconnected echelons and articulate their concerns in converging yet plural resistance strategies.

Research paper thumbnail of Gas extraction governmentality: The depoliticization of Groningen's extractive territorialization

Political Geography, 2023

The Dutch Northeastern province of Groningen has attracted national and international attention f... more The Dutch Northeastern province of Groningen has attracted national and international attention for being situated on top of Europe’s biggest gas field. Decades of gas extraction have caused human-made gasquakes that have become highly politicized as they have resulted in the damage of thousands of houses, messy compensation policies, unsafe living situations, an intense situation of social and psychological desperation, and deep political distrust. An issue that has, however, been mostly absent from political debates is the fact that the gas extraction has also caused land subsidence with major implications for the area’s water systems. In this article, we inves-tigate the depoliticizing governmentality techniques of Groningen’s extractive territorialization. In doing so, we differentiate how the same governmentality techniques have mostly depoliticized gas extraction-land subsidence while they have failed to depoliticize the gasquakes. We nuance the complex power dynamics (i.e., simultaneous de- and re-politicization), socio-material transformation processes (i.e., land subsidence and gasquakes), and institutional dynamics (i.e., public water management and private compensation organizations) evoked by extractive transformations. We argue that the extractive alliance’s land subsidence-governmentalities reflect a subtle re-ordering of territorial control. Yet, we also highlight the limits, contestations, and contingency of extractive governmentalization. We unravel how an understanding of power as simultaneously unintentional and intentional informs our analysis. We show how the extractive alliance benefits from the interplay of power strategies, yet not without being strongly contested by local inhabitants and social movements.

Research paper thumbnail of Entangled territorial controversies: Contesting mining, territorial ordering, and authority in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala

This article examines territorial disputes in the Palajunoj Valley of Quetzaltenango, Guatemala's... more This article examines territorial disputes in the Palajunoj Valley of Quetzaltenango, Guatemala's second largest city located in the western highlands. Drawing on our field research, we explore how dominant territory-making practices and indigenous-led resistance play out over an emerging municipal territorial ordering plan that gets interwoven with disputes over large-scale mining, waste disposal, and municipal authority amid wider urban-rural marginalization and tensions. We innovatively combine the notions of territory, territorial ordering governmentality, and the echelons (or levels) of rights framework to unpack the different layers on which dominant actor alliances' territorialization strategies and the responses of territorial defense movements emerge. Departing from an understanding that the disputes in the valley are not only about resources, but also entwine struggles over rules, authority, and discourses, we make a twofold argument. First, we argue that the rulinggroup's existing territory-making practices and new territorial ordering techniques coincide across the echelons, building on and reinforcing stark power imbalances. Second, we argue that indigenous-led, territory-based resistance movements engage in diverse strategies of contestation to articulate shared concerns around externally-imposed territorial interventions across echelons, but are challenged by micropolitical fragmentation, threats and instances of violence, and fragile multi-scalar support networks. Our analysis suggests that future territorial defense depends on the strengthening of multi-scalar and multi-actor alliances thatwhile acknowledging difference and tensions within and among resisting actors − devise their strategies along the four interconnected echelons and articulate their concerns in converging yet plural resistance strategies.

Research paper thumbnail of Gas extraction governmentality: The depoliticization of Groningen's extractive territorialization

Political Geography, 2023

The Dutch Northeastern province of Groningen has attracted national and international attention f... more The Dutch Northeastern province of Groningen has attracted national and international attention for being situated on top of Europe’s biggest gas field. Decades of gas extraction have caused human-made gasquakes that have become highly politicized as they have resulted in the damage of thousands of houses, messy compensation policies, unsafe living situations, an intense situation of social and psychological desperation, and deep political distrust. An issue that has, however, been mostly absent from political debates is the fact that the gas extraction has also caused land subsidence with major implications for the area’s water systems. In this article, we inves-tigate the depoliticizing governmentality techniques of Groningen’s extractive territorialization. In doing so, we differentiate how the same governmentality techniques have mostly depoliticized gas extraction-land subsidence while they have failed to depoliticize the gasquakes. We nuance the complex power dynamics (i.e., simultaneous de- and re-politicization), socio-material transformation processes (i.e., land subsidence and gasquakes), and institutional dynamics (i.e., public water management and private compensation organizations) evoked by extractive transformations. We argue that the extractive alliance’s land subsidence-governmentalities reflect a subtle re-ordering of territorial control. Yet, we also highlight the limits, contestations, and contingency of extractive governmentalization. We unravel how an understanding of power as simultaneously unintentional and intentional informs our analysis. We show how the extractive alliance benefits from the interplay of power strategies, yet not without being strongly contested by local inhabitants and social movements.