Global Education Lab #1: Extractivism

Switzerland, the European Union and the Global North play a fundamental role in today’s global market. For centuries European colonialism exploited people, land and resources in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Oceania. Despite it being less visible, it is undeniable that the globalised marketplace mimics those colonial structures today. European governments and companies are contributing to and driving global injustices even in times of the climate crisis: Rare minerals are being mined on indigenous land all over the world, forests being deforested, resources extracted, water resources polluted. The Global North is prospering thanks to their colonial wealth, and thanks to the exploitation of resources in the Global South. At the same time, people in the Global South
often have little or no say in what should happen to their land and don’t see their standards of living significantly increased, while selling off their resources, their labour and land.

It is relevant to bring awareness to European citizens around this topic and to encourage them to demand a systemic change from their governments. Many young people in Europe lack basicknowledge about colonial history, neocolonial power structures and extractivism happening today. It is fundamental to highlight the role Europe played and plays in the global market of raw materials
and extractivism. Our objectives with this seminar: With this seminar we aim to facilitate a conversation and build a shared understanding around how to do global education around resource extraction and how to talk about extractivism in a youth work and educational setting. Some thoughts we have:

● We want to exchange knowledge around what extractivism and neo-extractivism mean.
How they relate to colonialism, global injustice, and the climate crisis.
● We want to discuss alternative models of economic structuring such as circular economy,
cooperative economy, social and solidarity economy, among others.
● We want to look at what is already being done to protest and resist this phenomenon both in
the Global North and in the Global South and talk about Human Rights Defenders
● We want to develop and share educational methods that can help us do workshops on this
topic in youth settings.

You can find more details here!