Description
Book SynopsisDominic Boyer examines the politics of wind power and how it is shaped by myriad factors—from the legacies of settler colonialism and indigenous resistance to state bureaucracy and corporate investment—while outlining the fundamental impact of energy and fuel on political power.
Trade Review"Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty; professionals." -- L. L. Johnson * Choice *
"Howe and Boyer look back on the past with fresh eyes. . . . Howe and Boyer’s project has many virtues. For one, it articulates the perils of corporate wind economies. For another, it positions Indigenous communities (like the Zapotec) not as outmoded objects for anthropological inquiry, but (á la Gayatri Spivak) as 'active [producers] of culture.' Most importantly, perhaps, is how
Wind and Power in the Anthropocene documents alternatives to corporate wind ventures like Mareña. The book highlights, for example, community-based initiatives that also seek to harness the awesome power of istmeño wind—projects that promote communal welfare and environmental justice." -- Stacey Balkan * Public Books *
"The duograph is an interesting and novel way to approach collaborative writing, which I enjoyed engaging with. . . .
Energopolitics elegantly brings together political theory and ethnography. -- Anna G. Sveinsdóttir * Journal of Latin American Geography *
“In Wind and Power in the Anthropocene, a two-volume ‘duograph,’ Cymene Howe, in Ecologics, and Dominic Boyer, in Energopolitics, explore the development of wind parks during the early twenty-first century on the isthmus of Tehuantepec…. One of the most refreshing components of their collaborative and individual writing is the clarity of their position as researchers in this project as they circulated among politicians, indigenous peoples, and corporate officials. It is a necessary exercise, as they argue, for appreciating the entrenchment of the wind in local political and social relations.”
-- Nathan Kapoor * Technology and Culture *
“Boyer’s book seeks ways around human-centered notions of politics.... More important than his theoretical discussion is his contention that in order to understand aeolian politics in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, one must attend to situated, historical processes with which transitions to renewable energy become intimately entangled.” -- Chakad Ojani * Anthropology Book Forum *
“[
Ecologics and
Energopolitics] make strong arguments on political processes in the field of wind energy in Mexico...[and] are important contributions to an anthropology of energy, a still growing field within the discipline.”
-- Oliver D. Liebig * Anthropos *
Table of ContentsJoint Preface to
Wind and Power in the Anthropocene / Cymene Howe and Dominic Boyer ix
Acknowledgments xix
Introduction 1
1. Ixtepec 27
2. La Ventosa 60
3. Oaxaca de Juaréz 95
4. Distrito Federal 127
5. Guidxiguie' (Juchitán de Zaragoza) 158
Joint Conclusion to
Wind and Power in the Anthropocene / Cymene Howe and Dominic Boyer 194
Notes 199
References 225
Index 251
