The politics of place in energy transformations: Contesting green extractivism through indigenous governance in Union Hidalgo, Mexico
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Dominant discourses around global energy transitions often frame them as neutral, technical responses to climate change, yet in practice, these corporate-state projects reproduce extractive and colonial logics, particularly in the Global South. Rooted in growth-oriented and technocratic governance, normative transition narratives have continuously marginalised Indigenous knowledge and territorial worldviews, generating contestation and discontent. We argue that Indigenous resistance to green extractivism in the form of wind energy development is not merely oppositional but generative, producing alternative socio-technical and social-ecological imaginaries, as well as governance models through transformative strategies grounded in land-based autonomy. Engaging critically with social transformation theory, this article analyses how the Zapotec members of the agrarian assembly and land defenders of Unión Hidalgo in Oaxaca, Mexico, resist the Gunaa Sicarú wind project. Through legal mobilisation, autonomous institution-building and discursive strategies, the community challenges dominant energy imaginaries and articulates place-based autonomy within and against global energy politics. The case demonstrates how Indigenous communities become key agents in reimagining energy transformations by mobilising relational understandings of territory through evolving combinations of strategies that unsettle technocratic agendas and expose the colonial logics underpinning green extractivism.
Source: Human Geography
Authors: Aisha Valenzuela Basurto, Astrid Krisch
Institution: University of Oxford
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $3,400
OpenAlex ID: W7170046185