Resistance to Extractivism in the Sperrins, North of Ireland: Care, Commoning and Post-Extractive Futures

As the extractive frontier expands out into peripheralised parts of Europe, branded as critical for the green transition, communities are resisting. I build on feminist and decolonial scholarship which has conceptually widened extractivism from a physical removal of resources to be understood as a logic, worldview, a way of relating in the world rooted in coloniality. This article contributes to these debates by asking in what ways are communities resisting extractive logics in the Sperrin Mountains? Here in County Tyrone, North of Ireland communities have been resisting gold mining for more than ten years. Drawing on activist, creative and participatory methodologies I detail how the resistance is challenging extractive logics in the Sperrins by transforming relations with the human and more-than-human world. This is characterised in three ways, firstly through building relations within the campaign based on care and commoning, secondly, through relations with the more-than-human and thirdly by building relations with other translocal frontline communities. In this article, I explore the role of care, commoning and social reproduction in producing these counter narratives to extractivism. These practices, I argue, create the post-capitalist and post-extractive relations and point towards ecosocialist and ecofeminist futures.