INTERSECTIONS BETWEEN WATER AND COAL MINING IN ARTISTIC PRODUCTIONS OF SOUTHERN SANTA CATARINA, BRAZIL

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.36517/rm2026.e25013

Keywords:

partilha do sensível, cartografia, pós-extrativismo, território

Abstract

The article analyzes the hydrological degradation of the Coal Region in southern Santa Catarina (Brazil) not only as a chemical and physical phenomenon associated with coal mining, but also as a perceptual crisis that affects regimes of sensibility. It takes as reference three rivers in the region: Mãe Luzia, Criciúma, and Palmeiras. Drawing on Rancière’s notion of the partition of the sensible, the article proposes the concept of the “partition of the sensible of coal” to understand the institutional, economic, and symbolic practices that have organized ways of seeing, speaking, and inhabiting the territory since the early twentieth century. The research adopts a cartographic approach and engages in dialogue with contemporary artistic productions that generate dissensus within the extractivist regime by activating imagination as a field of political dispute, fostering fabulations of post-extractivist horizons grounded in relations of care, coexistence, and multispecies responsibility. By reinscribing rivers as memory, body, and interlocutors of the territory, art contributes to reconfiguring environmental disputes in the field of the sensible, expanding possibilities for other ways of life in the face of the ruins of capitalism.

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Author Biographies

  • Paula Martins de Oliveira, University of the Extreme Southern Santa Catarina

    Master's student in the Graduate Program in Environmental Sciences at the University of Southern Santa Catarina (PPGCA/Unesc) (Fapesc). Specialist in Active Learning Technologies (Faculdade IMES) (2024) for professional development. Specialist in Art Theory and History (Unesc) (2022). Holds a teaching degree in Language and Literature – Portuguese (Unesc) (2019). Volunteer researcher at the Center for Afro-Brazilian and Indigenous Studies (Neabi/Unesc). Volunteer researcher at the Multidisciplinary Academic League and LGBT+ Collective (LAMCLGBT+/Unesc). Organizer of the annual cultural event *Mateada Universitária* since 2017.

  • Viviane Kraieski de Assunção, University of the Extreme Southern Santa Catarina

    Professor in the Graduate Program in Environmental Sciences (PPGCA) and in undergraduate programs at the University of Southern Santa Catarina (UNESC). She is currently a visiting professor at San Diego State University (SDSU) in San Diego, California, USA. She holds a PhD in Social Anthropology from the Federal University of Santa Catarina (2011) and completed a research residency at the Institute of Latin American Studies at Columbia University, New York, USA. She holds a Master’s degree in Social Anthropology (2007) and a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism (2002) from the Federal University of Santa Catarina. She conducted postdoctoral research in Anthropology at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (2012–2013). She served as a Sustainability Fellow at the Center for Brazilian Studies at San Diego State University, California, USA, during the Spring 2023 semester. She leads the Environment, Culture, and Society Research Group (GPMACS). Her research focuses primarily on the following themes: environmental disasters and development projects; food, consumption, and waste; and urban environments, cultures, and socio-spatial practices. She is currently involved in two research projects in Southern California regarding the social impacts of lithium extraction and the intersections of extreme heat and social inequality.

  • Tainá Silva Candido, University of the Extreme Southern Santa Catarina

    PhD in Environmental Sciences from the Graduate Program in Environmental Sciences (PPGCA) at the University of Southern Santa Catarina (UNESC). Holds a Master’s degree in Education from the Graduate Program in Education (PPGE) at UNESC. Holds a degree in Pedagogy and is currently pursuing a degree in Sociology. Professor in the Pedagogy and integrated teacher training programs at the University of Southern Santa Catarina. Researcher with the Environment, Culture, and Society Research Group (GPMACS). Conducts research on pedagogical processes in traditional communities; decolonial studies; counter-narratives and forms of knowledge within contexts of cultural resistance; environmental disasters and development projects; and counter-colonial epistemologies, among other topics.

     

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Published

2026-06-10

Issue

Vol. 25 (2026)

Section

Artigos

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How to Cite

INTERSECTIONS BETWEEN WATER AND COAL MINING IN ARTISTIC PRODUCTIONS OF SOUTHERN SANTA CATARINA, BRAZIL. (2026). Mercator, 25. https://doi.org/10.36517/rm2026.e25013