University of Kentucky UKnowledge Theses and Dissertations--Geography Geography 2017 Politics below the Surface: A Political Ecology of Mineral Rights and Land Tenure Struggles in Appalachia and the Andes Lindsay Shade University of Kentucky, [email protected] Digital Object Identifier: https://doi.org/10.13023/ETD.2017.195 Right click to open a feedback form in a new tab to let us know how this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Shade, Lindsay, "Politics below the Surface: A Political Ecology of Mineral Rights and Land Tenure Struggles in Appalachia and the Andes" (2017). Theses and Dissertations--Geography. 50. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/geography_etds/50 This Doctoral Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Geography at UKnowledge. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations--Geography by an authorized administrator of UKnowledge. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 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Lindsay Shade, Student Dr. Tad Mutersbaugh, Major Professor Dr. Andrew Woods, Director of Graduate Studies POLITICS BELOW THE SURFACE: A POLITICAL ECOLOGY OF MINERAL RIGHTS AND LAND TENURE STRUGGLES IN APPALACHIA AND THE ANDES DISSERTATION A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Kentucky By Lindsay Shade Lexington, Kentucky Director: Dr. Tad Mutersbaugh, Professor of Geography Lexington, Kentucky 2017 Copyright © Lindsay Shade 2017 ABSTRACT OF DISSERTATION POLITICS BELOW THE SURFACE: A POLITICAL ECOLOGY OF MINERAL RIGHTS AND LAND TENURE STRUGGLES IN APPALACHIA AND THE ANDES This dissertation examines how confusion and lack of access to information about subsurface property rights facilitates the rapid acquisition of mineral rights by mining interests, leaving those who live 'above the surface' to contend with complicated corporate and bureaucratic apparatuses. The research focuses on the first proposed state- run large scale mining project in Ecuador, believed to contain copper ores, and on the natural gas hydrofracking industry in three counties in north central West Virginia. Qualitative and visual methods, including mapping, are employed to determine (i.) how the geography of subsurface ownership patterns is changing, (ii.) links between changes in subsurface ownership and surface ownership, and (iii.) how these changes are facilitated or impeded by institutional and governance practices. Rights and permit acquisitions are facilitated by state institutions, which often have strategic interests in mineral development. Accordingly, this research also considers the role of state strategy with respect to the establishment, bureaucratic management, and enforcement of vertical territory, which reflects the state’s interest in and sovereign claim over subterranean resources to benefit the nation. The research finds that the historical separation of subsurface property rights from the surface is associated with a persistent weakening of surface holder claims to land in favor of mining development, and that this weakening has contributed to the long-term persistence of absentee ownership and control over land in Ecuador and West Virginia. Viewing subsurface land deals from the perspective of those whose lives are disrupted on the surface, I conclude from this work that mundane practices such as deed transfers and local micropolitics about land use are significant factors in the lead up to larger scale violences and silences, such as forced displacement and even political imprisonment of activists opposed to extraction. KEYWORDS: Political ecology, mining, extractive industries, Latin America, Appalachia Lindsay Shade April 28, 2017 POLITICS BELOW THE SURFACE: A POLITICAL ECOLOGY OF MINERAL RIGHTS AND LAND TENURE STRUGGLES IN APPALACHIA AND THE ANDES By Lindsay Shade Tad Mutersbaugh Director of Dissertation Andrew Woods Director of Graduate Studies April 28, 2017 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This research would not have been possible without many collaborators in Ecuador and West Virginia, whose experiences and guidance are the basis of this dissertation. I am also especially grateful to the members of my dissertation committee for their enduring patience, support, and insights. Lastly, this work was feasible thanks to support from the National Science Foundation Law and Social Science Program (#1535660), the Institute for Human Geography, the University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences, the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences in Ecuador (FLACSO-Ecuador), and the Andean Center for Popular Action. iii Table of Contents: Chapter One: Introduction .............................................................................................. 1 Key Contributions: Subsurface geographies, resource dependency and the production of opacity .............................................................................................. 2 Extraction legacies and economic transition in Appalachia and the Andes ............ 4 Appalachia .................................................................................................. 4 The Andes ................................................................................................... 8 Theoretical contributions: Critical Legal Studies, Legal Geography and Political Ecology ................................................................................................................. 11 Methodological contributions to a comparative approach .................................... 16 Collaborative and Comparative Methodology and Epistemology ........................ 18 Collaborative Method as Global Ethnography ......................................... 21 Global Ethnography in Multiple Sites ...................................................... 22 Key Contributions and Chapter Overviews .......................................................... 24 Extractivism as Spatiotemporal Process ................................................... 25 State-Territorial Strategies for Managing the Subsurface ......................... 26 Systemic Opacity ...................................................................................... 28 Challenges and Future Directions ......................................................................... 29 Chapter Two: Producing the subsurface: Opacity as governance in the new extractivism ..................................................................................................................... 33 Land and territorial enrollment in the new extractivism ....................................... 36 Systemic opacity and the political economy of transparency ............................... 40 The Intag case: How land reform favors mining interests .................................... 42 Appalachian shale gas and the historical weakening of surface rights in West Virginia ................................................................................................................. 48 Conclusion: ........................................................................................................... 57 Chapter Two Figures: ............................................................................................ 59 Chapter Three: Sustainable Development or Sacrifice Zone? Politics below the surface in post-neoliberal Ecuador................................................................................ 68 Sacrifice zones as state-territorial strategy: Vertical territory and securing the subsoil ................................................................................................................... 70 Uneven citizenship and the sacrifice zone ............................................................ 71 Toward a critical analysis of sustainable mining policies ..................................... 73 The redistributive basis of mining expansion in Ecuador: 21st Century Socialism ..................................................................................................