Meanings
- uncountableExtractivist practices in the management of natural resources.
Industrial extractivism (a definition that Vidal would extend to include modern intensive agriculture) has contributed to the recent freefall in bird, mammal and amphibian numbers.
2023, Oliver Balch, “Animal, Mineral, Pathogen”, in Literary Review, number 5201 more example
Extractivism, a term born of anti-colonial struggle and thought in the Americas, is a mode of accumulation based on hyper-extraction with lopsided benefits and costs: concentrated mass-scale removal of resources primarily for export, with benefits largely accumulating far from the sites of extraction.
2022 December 8, Rosemary Collard, Jessica Dempsey, “‘Extractivism’ is destroying nature: to tackle it Cop15 must go beyond simple targets”, in The Guardian
Origin
From extractive + -ism, originally applied to mining practices in Latin America.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Catalan extractivisme
- extractivismeTranslations
Finnish ekstraktivismi
- ekstraktivismiTranslations
German Extraktivismus
- ExtraktivismusTranslations
Polish ekstraktywizm
- ekstraktywizmTranslations
Portuguese extrativismo
- extrativismoTranslations
Spanish extractivismo
- extractivismoTranslations
Turkish hafriyatçılık
- hafriyatçılıkTranslations
Cite this entry
extractivism. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/extractivism
“extractivism.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/extractivism. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “extractivism,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/extractivism.
Source: extractivism on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.