An Epistemology of Extraction

Methodology & Fieldwork

Starting in 2018, my research on mining has spanned Australia, Brazil, the Kingdom of Tonga, and the Philippines. However, my research has shifted towards the island province of Cebu in central Visayas, Philippines. I have carried out fieldwork in Cebu in 2019, 2022, and 2023 over periods of several weeks at a time. My M.A. thesis, "It Runs in the Blood: Towards an Epistemology of Extraction" was completed in the Spring of 2023 and focused on civil case no. TCV-2018-510 - a lawsuit filed by a group of residents from Naga City, Cebu against mining corporations CEMEX, Apo Land and Quarry Inc., and Apo Cement, the City of Naga, Mining and Geosciences Bureau (MGB), and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR). As a case study, civil case no. TCV-2018-510 provides a starting point for research that aims to theorize an epistemology of extraction. 

Selected videos from fieldwork: https://vimeo.com/showcase/10450996 

Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA)

Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) offers a methodological lens through which primary data is analyzed. In the application of CDA, the texts and discourses that emerge from the judicial process “in relation to social structures, including the power relations that are responsible for occasioning them” are subject to analysis. Through a consistently Foucauldian lens, CDA conceives of power as “central for understanding the dynamics and specifics of control (of action) in modern societies” even if “power remains mostly invisible” (Fairclough and Wodak 1997:10).

Primary Sources

Primary sources include primary interviews with mining-affected residents, mining laws and other legal texts spanning from the Spanish, American, and Republic eras of the Philippines, and selected legal documents from civil case no. TCV-2018-510 in Naga City, Cebu and other lawsuits involving mining companies in Cebu Province.  

For my M.A. thesis, my analysis focused on legal documents from civil case no. TCV-2018- 510 obtained at Branch 23 of the Regional Trial Court located at the Qimondo Cebu City Hall of Justice. The collected legal documents encompass Volumes 1-3 and Volumes 5-7 of civil case no. TCV-2018-510 totaling over 7000 pages, including at least 40 types of documents. Of these 6 volumes, eleven documents have been subject to analysis.

Aside from these texts, primary material include video and photographic recordings made during site visits to mining areas and field notes made during informal conversations with mining-affected residents of Naga City and court officials in Cebu City.