Thea Riofrancos
Biographic Data
| ID | 640483 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Thea Riofrancos |
| GIVEN NAMES | Thea |
| FAMILY NAME | Riofrancos |
| SIGNATURE | RIOFRANCOS T |
| AFFILIATIONS | Providence College |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 11 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 139 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 11 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2017 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Authoritarianism, Internationalism, and the Frontiers of Extraction
This interview situates Thea Riofrancos's latest book, Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism (2025), within the context of the current authoritarian conjuncture. Extractivism has shaped human relations with labor, land, and nature under capitalism. Yet the implications of extraction, including the mining of lithium to store green energy, are something that all radical left projects must grapple with. In this conversation, we consider the …
The New World Climate Order
An interview about the new parameters of climate politics, with the breakdown of global consensus. As the EU re-opens coal-fired plants and the US shuts down wind farms, China gouges the earth to churn out cheap green-energy products—and is met by anti-extractivist protestors
The Perils of Climate Alarmism
This essay examines the relationship between regime type and climate action, challenging the notion that authoritarian governments are better equipped to address the climate crisis. The author argues that democracies possess unique advantages in managing complex environmental challenges through dynamic information flows, vertical accountability, and multiplex political temporality. While acknowledging China's significant progress in renewable ene…
The Security–Sustainability Nexus
The political economy of lithium, a “critical mineral” for the renewable energy transition, is marked by two striking developments. First, Global North governments that have historically offshored mining are onshoring lithium to enhance “supply chain security.” Second, these governments have committed to “sustainably sourcing” lithium. In this article, I theorize both developments in terms of a novel security–sustainability nexus: an interlocking…
Latin America’s Green New Deal
On November 13, 2018, congressperson-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) joined dozens of young activists with the Sunrise Movement in occupying the incoming House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office. “
Winning Back Our Future
Agency, critique, and complicity in The Extractive Zone
A Souring Friendship, a Left Divided
On April 9, Ecuador’s Comptroller General Pablo Celi released an incendiary report that threatened to imprison former president Rafael Correa for his mismanagement of the country’s public debt. Cor
Endogenous Participation
Why and how do institutions strengthen? This article offers an explanation of institutional strength based on the study of participatory institutions. Combining the insights of historical institutionalism and participatory democracy literatures, the authors propose an endogenous theory of participation and argue that the strength of participatory institutions depends on the historic process of their creation and the subsequent political incorpora…
Extractivismo unearthed
This article provides a genealogy of extractivismo discourse. In South America, the critical discourse of extractivismo has shifted political horizons and fomented a protracted intraleft dispute. Decades of neoliberalism unified popular movements to resist austerity and recuperate national sovereignty, but the ascendency of leftist administrations across the continent fragmented the field of radical politics. Ecuador exemplifies this internecine …
Scaling Democracy
In an extractive economy with territorially uneven costs and benefits, who should decide the fate of oil and mining projects: directly affected minorities or national citizenries? I reframe this question empirically: How are the collective identities and interests attached to various scales of democracy politically constructed in the increasingly frequent conflicts over resource extraction in Latin America, and what can we learn from these confli…
The Security–Sustainability Nexus
The political economy of lithium, a “critical mineral” for the renewable energy transition, is marked by two striking developments. First, Global North governments that have historically offshored mining are onshoring lithium to enhance “supply chain security.” Second, these governments have committed to “sustainably sourcing” lithium. In this article, I theorize both developments in terms of a novel security–sustainability nexus: an interlocking…
Endogenous Participation
Why and how do institutions strengthen? This article offers an explanation of institutional strength based on the study of participatory institutions. Combining the insights of historical institutionalism and participatory democracy literatures, the authors propose an endogenous theory of participation and argue that the strength of participatory institutions depends on the historic process of their creation and the subsequent political incorpora…
Scaling Democracy
In an extractive economy with territorially uneven costs and benefits, who should decide the fate of oil and mining projects: directly affected minorities or national citizenries? I reframe this question empirically: How are the collective identities and interests attached to various scales of democracy politically constructed in the increasingly frequent conflicts over resource extraction in Latin America, and what can we learn from these confli…
Extractivismo unearthed
This article provides a genealogy of extractivismo discourse. In South America, the critical discourse of extractivismo has shifted political horizons and fomented a protracted intraleft dispute. Decades of neoliberalism unified popular movements to resist austerity and recuperate national sovereignty, but the ascendency of leftist administrations across the continent fragmented the field of radical politics. Ecuador exemplifies this internecine …
Scaling Democracy
In an extractive economy with territorially uneven costs and benefits, who should decide the fate of oil and mining projects: directly affected minorities or national citizenries? I reframe this question empirically: How are the collective identities and interests attached to various scales of democracy politically constructed in the increasingly frequent conflicts over resource extraction in Latin America, and what can we learn from these confli…
A Souring Friendship, a Left Divided
On April 9, Ecuador’s Comptroller General Pablo Celi released an incendiary report that threatened to imprison former president Rafael Correa for his mismanagement of the country’s public debt. Cor
Endogenous Participation
Why and how do institutions strengthen? This article offers an explanation of institutional strength based on the study of participatory institutions. Combining the insights of historical institutionalism and participatory democracy literatures, the authors propose an endogenous theory of participation and argue that the strength of participatory institutions depends on the historic process of their creation and the subsequent political incorpora…
Winning Back Our Future
Agency, critique, and complicity in The Extractive Zone
Latin America’s Green New Deal
On November 13, 2018, congressperson-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) joined dozens of young activists with the Sunrise Movement in occupying the incoming House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office. “
The Security–Sustainability Nexus
The political economy of lithium, a “critical mineral” for the renewable energy transition, is marked by two striking developments. First, Global North governments that have historically offshored mining are onshoring lithium to enhance “supply chain security.” Second, these governments have committed to “sustainably sourcing” lithium. In this article, I theorize both developments in terms of a novel security–sustainability nexus: an interlocking…
The Perils of Climate Alarmism
This essay examines the relationship between regime type and climate action, challenging the notion that authoritarian governments are better equipped to address the climate crisis. The author argues that democracies possess unique advantages in managing complex environmental challenges through dynamic information flows, vertical accountability, and multiplex political temporality. While acknowledging China's significant progress in renewable ene…
Authoritarianism, Internationalism, and the Frontiers of Extraction
This interview situates Thea Riofrancos's latest book, Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism (2025), within the context of the current authoritarian conjuncture. Extractivism has shaped human relations with labor, land, and nature under capitalism. Yet the implications of extraction, including the mining of lithium to store green energy, are something that all radical left projects must grapple with. In this conversation, we consider the …
The New World Climate Order
An interview about the new parameters of climate politics, with the breakdown of global consensus. As the EU re-opens coal-fired plants and the US shuts down wind farms, China gouges the earth to churn out cheap green-energy products—and is met by anti-extractivist protestors
Political science (7 works) · Law (5 works) · Law (4 works) · Sociology (4 works) · Latin Americans (3 works) · Politics (3 works) · Citizen journalism (2 works) · Democracy (2 works) · Mining and Resource Management (2 works) · Political economy (2 works)