IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bpj/soeuro/v72y2024i3p348-369n1003.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

In Search of an Electrified Future: The Affective Afterlife of the Extractive Industry in Mitrovica, Kosovo

Author

Listed:
  • Berisha Rozafa

    (Department of Anthropology and Cultural Heritage, University of Prishtina “Hasan Prishtina”, Prishtina, Kosovo)

Abstract

This article analyses hopes around the promissory potential of mineral resources through the lens of affect. Building on ethnographic fieldwork conducted between 2018 and 2019 in South Mitrovica in Kosovo, it explores how citizens of a de-industrialised and politically unstable city envision the future around and beyond the extractive potential of the Trepça mine. It does so by examining two encounters with two different modes of electricity – a power cut and New Year lights – as instantiations of the mine’s affective force that evoke the historically specific promise of modernity shaped during Yugoslav socialism. Through the motif of electricity, the article demonstrates how this industrial past orients collective hopes towards an extractive future. Retrospectively shaped, these hopes remain intangible, however, and riddled with doubts, friction, and contestation. Divergent visions, then, attempt to ground a viable future amid the uncertainties triggered by postsocialism, the war and its aftermath, and de-industrialisation.

Suggested Citation

  • Berisha Rozafa, 2024. "In Search of an Electrified Future: The Affective Afterlife of the Extractive Industry in Mitrovica, Kosovo," Comparative Southeast European Studies, De Gruyter, vol. 72(3), pages 348-369.
    • Handle: RePEc:bpj:soeuro:v:72:y:2024:i:3:p:348-369:n:1003
    DOI: 10.1515/soeu-2023-0055
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1515/soeu-2023-0055
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1515/soeu-2023-0055?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Emma Gilberthorpe & Dinah Rajak, 2017. "The Anthropology of Extraction: Critical Perspectives on the Resource Curse," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(2), pages 186-204, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Funk, Charles & Treviño, Len J. & Oriaifo, Juliet, 2021. "Resource curse impacts on the co-evolution of emerging economy institutions and firm internationalization," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(4).
    2. Corey Young, 2023. "Employment and Income Effects of Investments Made Using the Act 13 Unconventional Natural Gas Impact Fee in Pennsylvania," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(11), pages 1-11, May.
    3. Andrea Rissing & Bradley M. Jones, 2022. "Landscapes of value," Economic Anthropology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 9(2), pages 193-206, June.
    4. Bernhard Tröster & Karin Küblböck, 2020. "Unprecedented but not Unpredictable: Effects of the COVID-19 Crisis on Commodity-Dependent Countries," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 32(5), pages 1430-1449, December.
    5. repec:aly:journl:201821 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Franklin Obeng†Odoom, 2018. "Transnational Corporations and Urban Development," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 77(2), pages 447-510, March.
    7. Schroeder, Heike & González P., Nidia C., 2019. "Bridging knowledge divides: The case of indigenous ontologies of territoriality and REDD+," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 198-206.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bpj:soeuro:v:72:y:2024:i:3:p:348-369:n:1003. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Peter Golla (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.degruyter.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.