Contesting Gas Infrastructure

Moral Economies and the Production of Space in the Ría de Ferrol

Authors

  • Susana Narotzky Molleda University of Barcelona

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.46661/rec.12260

Keywords:

production of space, energy policies, social mobilization, Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), Ferrol

Abstract

Based on the empirical case of the location of a Liquefied Natural Gas regasification plant in the Ferrol estuary (Galicia) and the conflicts that arose during its implementation, this article analyzes the social, political, and economic production of space. We combine a critical political economy approach with moral economy to address the complexity of the valuation and valorization processes that shape the struggles over the social values of a given physical space. The conflicts surrounding the regasification plant allow us to observe how spaces are defined as places of conflicting values in relation to what has value, how it should be used, and who should benefit from it. These processes of spatial valuation are expressed in negotiations, frictions, and various forms of violence, in a highly unequal field of forces and at various scales. The analysis is based on a long-term anthropological ethnography, complemented by documentary and archival material.

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Author Biography

Susana Narotzky Molleda, University of Barcelona

Susana Narotzky is full professor of social anthropology at the University of Barcelona. She received her doctorate from the University of Barcelona (1989) and the New School for Social Research in New York (1990). She specializes in economic anthropology, and her research is based on ethnographic fieldwork, as well as the use of reports, documents, and archival material. Her work draws on theories of political economy, feminist economics, political ecology, and value regime studies. She has held fellowships at numerous foreign institutions, including the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton (2019-2020). Her work was awarded the Ramón Menéndez Pidal National Prize for Research in the Humanities in 2020.

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Revista de Economía Crítica número 39

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Published

2025-07-01

How to Cite

Narotzky Molleda, Susana. 2025. “Contesting Gas Infrastructure: Moral Economies and the Production of Space in the Ría De Ferrol”. Revista De Economía Crítica, no. 39 (July):9-25. https://doi.org/10.46661/rec.12260.

Issue

No. 39 (2025): First semester 2025 - Space and heterodox economics: an interdisciplinary dialogue on the geographies of capitalism

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Articles

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Copyright (c) 2025 Susana Narotzky Molleda

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