Contested Knowledges in the Environmental Conflict over Uranium and Phosphate Mining in Ceará – Brazil

Abstract

This article analyses aspects of knowledge production in situations of environmental conflicts. It focuses on the context of the environmental field established by the announcement of the uranium and phosphate mining project in the Sertão Central (Central Hinterland) of Ceará – Brazil. The aim is to describe several modus faciendi – ways of acting – that update and territorialize epistemicide and cognitive injustices in the context of neo-extractivism. It also intends to describe processes of knowledge construction put in motion by subjects who were affected, in order to defend themselves from threats to their territories and ways of life. The study also addresses interfaces of this process with the participation of researchers/advisors who, from the perspective of a science oriented by activism, engage in dialogue with local subjects for a shared production of knowledge.

Keywords

• knowledge
• development
• environmental conflict
• uranium and phosphate mining