نبذة مختصرة : INTERRUPTIONS examines the relationship with the environment of newly mechanized societies in South American territories under extractivist constraint, through the study of accidents, malfunctions, and downtime as processes shaping landscapes, technicities, and societies. The advance of extractive fronts into indigenous territories has often been understood as a linear movement of global integration and standardization of previously peripheral and heterogeneous populations and ecosystems. However, these territories are characterized by numerous accidents, striking on the ground but neglected by administrations, which occur in informal contexts and often involve newly mechanized populations (women, children, Indigenous peoples). Similarly, the operation of extractive industries in these remote and poorly regulated contexts is frequently disrupted by social events (road blockages, strikes) or environmental hazards (floods, earthquakes, fires), leading to many instances of daily downtime. These interruptions are the source of detours, repairs, or workaround methods, which can be hypothesized to shape these territories as much as public policies or the actions of dominant actors. South America’s extractive landscapes are thus punctuated by accidents and roadside memorials, daily life is marked by idle time and waiting, and its landscapes bear scars. Yet, these malfunctions and accidents have rarely been studied, and when they have, it has been almost exclusively through the lens of road safety or occupational accident prevention policies.INTERRUPTIONS studies these accidents, malfunctions, and downtimes as processes shaping space, technicities, and society, focusing on three research axes and two South American regions under extractivist pressure: the Southern Andes and the Gran Chaco. (1) Accidents: Shaping Landscapes and Memories explores the documentary, memorial, ethnographic, and material traces of breakdowns and accidents in indigenous territories, in relation to concepts of death, time, and nature. (2) ...
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