“Here, Vale is the State”: neoextractivism and authoritarianism in the city, the countryside and the forest in the region of Carajás

Abstract

In this article I present neo-extractivist forms of authoritarianism in the region of Carajás (southeast Pará, Brazil), which depend on extensive corporate influence on multiple scales of state governance and on multiple state powers. Based on secondary data and qualitative research carried out in Canaã dos Carajás, I discuss Vale’s operations in the municipality after the implementation of the S11D mining project. I present these contemporary forms of neo-extractivist authoritarianism in three distinct geographies: city, countryside and forest. The first is based on the production of urban space using mining royalties’ resources and the so-called “corporate social responsibility policies”; the second refers to the dispossession mechanisms of landless encampments and villages in the rural area of the municipality; and the third refers to the operationalization of the forest through conversational units and environmental legislation.

Keywords:
Neo-extractivism; Mining; Urbanization; Vale; Amazonia; Carajás; Authoritarianism; Pará