Political practices between internal colonialism and global inequality: Energy infrastructures in Tunisia and Costa Rica

Abstract

Infrastructures are products of relational political processes. In this paper, we analyze the power dynamics around energy infrastructure projects at different scales. We aim at unpacking controversial global-local relations around renewable energy infrastructures by combining literatures on internal colonialism and global inequalities. Large scale infrastructure's dependence on global actors link practices of internal colonialism to global inequalities in the contexts of energy infrastructure expansion in Tunisia (solar plants) and Costa Rica (hydroelectric dams). Analyzing the political practices in these projects, we contribute a practices-based perspective to existing work on relations of coloniality perpetuated through contemporary infrastructure. These practices include cooperation between global, technical agencies with energy ministries and state discourses that frame resistance to energy infrastructure projects as backward or unwilling to contribute to a nation's electricity portfolio. (Il-)legal practices include the de facto transformation of land ownership for Indigenous communities in Costa Rica, and tribes in Tunisia. The socio-spatial asymmetries in these global and internal colonial relations are expressed in potential ‘sacrifice zones’. Simultaneously, affected communities do practice resistance against planned infrastructures, from slow, everyday practices to formalized legal pathways.