Twenty-first century extractivism: Crisis and subjectivity in Venezuela

Abstract

Most discourses attempting to explain the Venezuelan crisis do not consider the role that the commodification of nature has had in the deterioration of the country. This article seeks to fill that gap by exploring the deployment of the ecosocialist rhetoric of buen vivir alongside extractivism in Venezuela. For this, I articulate Nancy Fraser’s conceptualization of capitalism with the Lacanian notion of subjectivity. In doing so I show the interconnectedness of the material structure of the Venezuelan crisis, and the ideological role that conceptions of buen vivir played in perpetuating capitalist crisis. Finally, I argue that Lacanian subjectivity offers a conceptualization of nature which is less vulnerable to co-option.