Visualizing Canada in Central America: radical cartography and transnational connections in the green extractivist transition

Abstract

This paper mobilizes radical cartographic projects to explore the participation of Canada within green extractivism in Central America. The transition to a green capitalist economy built on alternative energy sources is well underway across the region of Central America, but the multiple forms of dispossession and agrarian change associated with the transition have generated significant harm for surrounding communities. This paper highlights the extractivist logic of supposedly renewable energy by pairing the literature on green extractivism with findings from fieldwork with rural communities surrounding energy and infrastructure projects in Costa Rica and Panama. In doing so, both the literature review and research findings connect with projects of radical cartography, which aim to subvert state and corporate mapping through grassroots projects of art-based resistance. Following an exploration of the Beehive Collective’s Mesoamérica Resiste! poster, the paper presents a pair of original maps and a series of stories, in order to demonstrate the communicative power and theoretical potential of radical cartography. The stories presented here were collected over five months of fieldwork in Costa Rica and Panama, which included 34 interviews plus participant observation at 18 energy and infrastructure sites. Discussion of the findings explores Canada’s participation in selected extractivist projects, and offers an approach to analyzing transnational involvement through categories of Consumption, Investment, Promotion, and Provision. Given the relationship between these findings and the map-making process, the paper emphasizes the ability of radical cartography and graphic art projects to generate theoretical insight for academic research and to communicate findings to non-academic participants.