Experiential Future Brief
Step 1 – Introduction and Area of Exploitation
This study aims to experiment with alternative transition pathways to post-extractivism within Kono District, Sierra Leone. It seeks to activate the potential of civic duty and a geofuturist mindset to enable the healing of the trauma of exploitation.
Theory – Post-Extractivism
The term post-extractivism was formulated in 2013 by Eduardo Gudynas as an “alternative to development”, posing a substantial challenge to “growth-oriented extractivism” and the destructive model that supports it.[1] Arturo Escobar explains the theories feasibility.
“The post-extractivism framework does not endorse a view of untouched nature, nor a ban on all mining or large-scale agriculture, but rather the significant transformation of these activities to minimize their environmental and cultural impact. It posits a horizon with two main goals: zero poverty and zero extinctions, to which we need to add, from a political ontology perspective, zero worlds destroyed.”[2]
Therefore, building contextual interventions through a post-extractivist lens would require two primary considerations, ensuring there are “zero worlds destroyed.” The first of these considerations is, will nature allow mineral extraction in this locality? To assess this, we must consider how the biotech environment will react if we extract non-renewable mineral resources. The second consideration surrounds the available mining practices, asking if they will damage the ecosystem and how will that contribute to global climate change?
Theory- Geofuturism
The second key theory for this study is geofuturism. It offers a more holistic response to the current system, which reduces “life into objects for the use of others” and is constructed around “non-reciprocal dominance-based relationships on [and with] the earth.”[3]
[1] Gudynas, E. 2011. “Transitions to Post-Extractivism: Directions, Options, Areas of Action”, Science, 333, 165; Escobar, Arturo. 2015. “Degrowth, postdevelopment, and transitions: a preliminary conversation”, Sustainability Science, 10(3), 456. [2] Escobar, Arturo. 2018. Designs for the Pluriverse: Radical Interdependence, Autonomy, and the Making of Worlds. Duke University Press, 150. [3] Klein, Naomi. 2015. This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs the Climate, London: Penguin Books, 169.
Geofuturism offers a speculative vision of humanity that uses resources while preserving the natural capital of a locality and preventing the destruction of indigenous life support systems. It attempts to allow people in localities to practice in situ resource utilization to balance culture, place, environment, and people.
Step 2 – Research Problem Statement
Overconsumption has destroyed livelihoods, ecosystems, and cultures in the name of excessive extraction of non-renewable minerals and the accumulation of resources. The localities where resources are available have become “sacrifice zones” and everything within them becomes a liability. Indigenous occupants have become what i called “sacrifice bodies” as they are forcefully removed from their home, and offered no alternative livelihood.
These sacrifice zones are spread throughout Africa. Its position as the most resource-rich continent has made them vulnerable to unfettered extraction. Cameroonian philosopher Joseph-Achille Mbembe coined the term “necropolitics” to refer to how “the concentration of activities connected with the extraction of valuable resources around these enclaves has… turned these enclaves into privileged spaces of war and death.”[4] African leaders have been convinced to follow this path of destruction through promises of “progress” within the Western hegemony of development theory. The required ecological and social compromise has left African communities with the existential threat of collapse.
Step 3 – Research Purpose Statement
This study aims to create experiences for grassroots actors within Kono’s non-renewable mineral resource extraction systems. The experiential future will deconstruct the exploitative systems these individuals are trapped inside and introduce post-extractivist theories and the importance of a geofuturist mindset. It will encourage participants to utilize their indigenous knowledge to design futures for their context, thus affirming its value and helping participants leverage their indigenity when creating interventions for the present.
[4]Mbembe, Achile (2003) “Necropolitics”, Public Culture, 15(1), 33.
Step 4 – Research Questions
The study asks if using indigenous Kono practices and theater of the oppressed methodologies can allow indigenous people in extractivist localities to think/feel just and attainable distributed mineral resource systems (DMRS) that do not require sacrifice zones to extract resources – connects community, nature, and people – and leverages indigenous sovereignty.
- How will the experience allow people to visualize and think/feel place-base sovereignty without displacement of their land and stewardship over it?
- How can a utilization of Julia Watson’s concept “Lo-Tek” allow the materialization of the future to be “sustainable, adaptable, and borne out of necessity” and therefore ensure that the study does not contribute to further extractivism?[5]
- In promoting receiving over taking from the land, how can participants interact with ways to have the authority to steward their land contrary to the destructive desires of Trans-National Mega corporations?
Step 5 – Futures and Design Methods
According to the types of futures outlined by Sohail Inayatullah, the study will leverage a combination of critical and anticipatory action learning futures.[6]
In the critical future, theater of the oppressed methodologies will be used, whereby participants will be introduced to a scene of oppression and encouraged to consider interventions. Therefore, it aims to disturb power relations and the contemporary structure of a system. The choice of post-extractivism as a theory to center the study around also makes it critical, as post-extractivism requires removing exploitative systems and securing ecological resilience.
The study will also be an anticipatory action learning future because it will ask participants to question the future presented to them, considering how a distributed natural resource system will function within their specific context. Therefore, they will be asked to ritualize it by avoiding speculating on a single future but considering its multiple manifestations.
[5] Watson, Julia et al. 2021. “Design by Radical Indigenism: Equitable Underwater & Intertidal Technologies of the Global South.” Spool, 8(3), pp. 57-74. [6] Inayatullah, Sohail. 2007. Questioning the Future: Methods and Tools for Organizational and Societal Transformation. Tamkang: Tamkang University Press, p. 199.
DAY 1
Experiential Future Ladder
The first phase of the study, thinking about the future, was formulated according to the experiential futures ladder created by Stuart Candy and Jake Franklin Dunagan.[7]
Setting
The ladder begins with “Setting” as a top-level description of the future. The study is based on the generic image of an apocalypse in Kono District, Sierra Leone, where the contemporary sacrifice zone has worsened exponentially. The critical future will imagine 2085, picturing a situation where extraction has increased, impacting wellbeing and ecological resilience all over Sierra Leone. Therefore, the present sacrifice zone has become unimaginably more expansive, with all Sierra Leoneans becoming either laborers or refugees in exile in their own land.
Scenario
The “Scenario” is the next most specific layer, where a particular narrative proposition and chain of events are created that give context to the future. The above-described apocalypse is based on a resource discovery from 2021 of vast deposits of industrial minerals, including bauxite, rutile, and nickel.[8] These ores are sought after by industrial conglomerates, with bauxite used in aluminum production, rutile used in single-use plastics, and nickel used in rocket engines.
In 2030, this deposit was discovered to be significantly larger and thought of how expansions in the industries mentioned earlier would lead to the West urgently chasing these resources. According to the Mines and Minerals Act, the National Minerals Agency of Sierra Leone enforces mining laws and distributes licenses.[9] However, Sierra Leone struggles to act autonomously as foreign aid has “economically crippled the country,” “created a relationship of dependency,” and “induced corruption.”[10] Therefore, Western nations were able to threaten a
[7] Candy, Stuart and Dunagan, Jake Franklin. (2016) “The Experiential Turn.” Human Futures, 26, p. 29. [8] Thomas, Abdul Rashid (2021) “Sierra Leone Discovers New Deposits of Diamond, Bauxite, Iron Ore, Gold, Rutile, and Nickel,” Sierra Leone Telegraph, accessed 03/02/2022, https://www.thesierraleonetelegraph.com/sierra-leone-discovers-new-deposits-of-diamond-bauxite-iron-ore-gold-rutile-and-nickel/. [9] Koromoa, Ernest Bail. 2012. “The National Mineral Agency Act 2012.” Supplement to the Sierra Leone Gazette, CXLIII(23). [10] Elnour, Amna. 2018. “A Comparative Analysis of the the Role of Foreign Aid in Post-Conflict Reconstruction of Rwanda and Sierra Leone.” Thesis submitted to The American University in Cairo: School of Humanities and Social Sciences, p. 7.
withdrawal of aid should the NMA continue to refuse mining licenses to mining conglomerates. Facing economic destitution, the Sierra Leonean government was forced to comply.
Therefore, mass mining projects began on an unprecedented scale, with growing mining infrastructure, police control, and a refugee crisis turning most of Sierra Leone into a sacrifice zone.
Setting
Within this scenario, the study’s cognitive mental exploration is centered on two aspects. The first is those left inside the sacrifice zones to labor. These individuals live hard lives akin to modern slavery under tyrannical police rule. The second aspect of the experience is those who have been exiled from the sacrifice zones and forced into mass refugee camps on the Sierra Leonean border.
Staging The Experience
For the first section, the participants imagine that they are a group of concerned Kono residents who are meeting to discuss the problems within their sacrifice zone and the measures they could take to mitigate them. The participants would be divided into groups of four consisting of individuals from the same locality. Leveraging the four chair listening exercise presented in week 1 class session, participants will be presented with six images describing issues within their sacrifice zones. The group members are then given a role each: “Speaker,” “Chair of Emotion,” “Chair of Facts and Emotion,” and “Chair of Motivation.” The speaker then selects an image and describes the problem. The “Chair of Emotion” discusses how it made them feel, the “Chair of Facts and Data” discusses the objective ramifications of the problem, and the “Chair of Motivation” then describes why it is so important the issue is resolved and suggests potential mitigating solutions. This process is repeated to cover all six pictures, and the participants swap roles each time.
Healing with the Experience
The second section of the experience predicts that the first could be fairly traumatic and therefore participants will consider how this trauma can be healed by imagining how the trauma of displacement might be healed amongst refugee communities. After the civil war, there was a revival of traditional dance as Sierra Leoneans attempted to use their heritage to heal trauma and reconcile divisions. The study imagines that a similar revival occurs amongst refugee communities. Therefore, participants will be asked to participate in a dance event whereby traditional dance experts teach them dances that have been carried out for hundreds of years in Kono with the help and arrangements of cultural artifacts. After taking part in the dance, the participants will fill in a questionnaire where they will consider two aspects. Firstly, did the traditional dance help them regain connections with their heritage and separate themselves from Western hegemony? Secondly, did the dance help in beginning conversations of healing prior tensions, anger, and trauma that participants felt during the first experience.
Stuff
The final layer of the experiential futures ladder is “Stuff” whereby we must consider the exact artifacts from our future that can be leveraged to give our experience tangibility and materiality. As there are two aspects to the study, two types of stuff are required. For the first experience, the individuals will engage with images published in an underground newspaper, helping them understand the extent to which they act outside of legal boundaries. In the second experience, individuals will wear traditional Sierra Leonean dancing costumes, which will cast Sierra Leone’s past and heritage into the study’s future.
DAY 2
Transitioning to Making Prefered Futures through a game
For the final stage of the study, the participants will take part in an anticipatory action learning game. Having engaged in the cognitive mental exploration through taking part in the experience, they will design a future for their locality through a lens of post-extractivist and geo-futurist paradigm.
Game Design
Having got back into their groups of four with others from the same locality, the participants will be given two decks of cards and a list of goals. The first deck will be “Sacrifice Zone Cards,” which describe aspects of the future sacrifice zone in Kono. For example, “Pollution and Toxicity.” The second deck will be “Nodes for Counter Power,” which describe potential leverage points from which the participants can design their future. For example, “Indigenous Knowledge and Technology.” Finally, the list of goals will describe participants’ aims when designing their future. These include “Receiving not Taking from the Land,” “Locality forms own Criteria for Success,” and “Ecological Resilience.”
The group will select a “Sacrifice Zone Card” and a “Node for Counterpower Card” to play the game. They will then use their counterpower to design an intervention, artifact, or idea of a future that reconciles the aspect of the sacrifice zone and fits with the list of goals.The team will repeat this several times until they have created their own versions of a post-extractivist and geofuturist world that contextualizes with their localities. At the end of the activity, the groups will present their different futures, observing how they are different depending on the locality of the group.
Step 6 – Anticipated Data Outputs
Having conducted the study, I anticipate an array of data outputs that will inform my research moving forwards. These outputs will vary based on a number of factors surrounding how participants experience the cognitive mental exploration.
Firstly, the primary output will be the emotional response of participants. The study will require them to look deep into a future much like their present, only much more traumatic. Enabling the maximum emotional response will require the experience to give permission for participants to thinkfeel in a profound manner.
Secondly, it will be fascinating to observe how the participants are able to question their assumptions of “time”. For individuals stuck in sacrifice zones, it can seem that sacrifice is a fact of life. Therefore, how can the study allow them to imagine the unimaginable, and how vital will immediacy prove in granting them an immersive experience?
Sensory vectors will also form a crucial data output and participants will be engaging with the senses of their past. When they hear traditional Kono music, and listen and feel Kono dance, will ancestral memories be triggered, and how will that impact the way they interact with their environment and culture? All these anticipated data outputs will interact with the participants’ experience of the present.
As the temporal space between the participant and the study grows, it will be fascinating to see how the cognitive mental exploration is impacting their actions in the present. Moreover, how will they continue to interact with the future in their everyday lives?
References
- Bell, Jon. 2018. “New Details, Renderings of $94M Diamond Plant Emerge after Groundbreaking in Gresham.” Portland Business Journal. Accessed 02/23/2022 https://www.bizjournals.com/portland/news/2018/06/29/new-details-renderings-of-94m-diamond-plant-emerge.html
- Candy, Stuart and Dunagan, Jake Franklin. (2016) “The Experiential Turn.” Human Futures, 26, pp. 26-29.
- Elnour, Amna. 2018. “A Comparative Analysis of the the Role of Foreign Aid in Post-Conflict Reconstruction of Rwanda and Sierra Leone.” Thesis submitted to The American University in Cairo: School of Humanities and Social Sciences.
- Escobar, Arturo. 2015. “Degrowth, postdevelopment, and transitions: a preliminary conversation”, Sustainability Science, 10(3), 451-462.
- Escobar, Arturo. 2018. Designs for the Pluriverse: Radical Interdependence, Autonomy, and the Making of Worlds. Duke University Press.
- Garside, M. 2022. “Diamond Industry – Statistics & Facts.” Statista, Accessed 02/23/2022 https://www.statista.com/topics/1704/diamond-industry/#topicHeader__wrapper
- Gudynas, E. 2011. “Transitions to Post-Extractivism: Directions, Options, Areas of Action”, Science, 333, 165-188
- Inayatullah, Sohail. 2007. Questioning the Future: Methods and Tools for Organizational and Societal Transformation. Tamkang: Tamkang University Press.
- Kimmer, Robin W. 2020. Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants, London: Penguin Books Limited.
- Klein, Naomi. 2015. This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs the Climate, London: Penguin Books.
- Koromoa, Ernest Bail. 2012. “The National Mineral Agency Act 2012.” SUpplement to the Sierra Leone Gazette, CXLIII(23).
- Mbembe, Achile. 2003. “Necropolitics”, Public Culture, 15(1).
- Thomas, Abdul Rashid. 2021. “Sierra Leone Discovers New Deposits of Diamond, Bauxite, Iron Ore, Gold, Rutile, and Nickel,” Sierra Leone Telegraph, accessed 03/02/2022, https://www.thesierraleonetelegraph.com/sierra-leone-discovers-new-deposits-of-diamond-bauxite-iron-ore-gold-rutile-and-nickel/
- Watson, Julia et al. 2021. “Design by Radical Indigenism: Equitable Underwater & Intertidal Technologies of the Global South.” Spool, 8(3), pp. 57-74.
- Yarnell, Amanda. 2004. “The Many Facets of Man-Made Diamonds” C&EN. 82(5). Accessed 02/23/2022. https://cen.acs.org/articles/82/i5/FACETS-MAN-MADE-DIAMONDS.html