Debates en Sociología

Environment and Society in Contemporary Latin America

2024-12-06T14:56:24-05:00

Sustainable Development

2024-12-05T18:20:38-05:00

In this article, different ideas of sustainable development are reviewed showing that they rest on ways of recognizing and assigning values. Despite its importance, this feature has not received the attention it deserves. The dominant valuation perspective is anthropocentric, which turns to behave as a conditionality that subordinates ecological imperatives and is functional to economic growth. Radical different perspectives are South American Andean-Amazonian alternatives based on a biocentric posture that recognizes intrinsic values in nature. Ecuador offers a case study of that perspective. It is argued that it represents a more powerful option because is an alternative beyond any variety of development.

Building Eco-Territorial Movements in Private-Community Conservation Areas

2024-12-05T18:20:43-05:00

Nature conservation is an urgent issue globally, particularly regarding its integration with sustainable socio-economic development. In Latin America, countries like Peru face increasing tensions between nature conservation and neoextractivist models. The eco-territorial turn of socio-environmental movements in the region reflects a critique of this economic model and seeks collective governance of the territory. In this context, Private Conservation Areas (PCAs) have proliferated in recent decades, with the Chaparrí Nature Reserve pioneering as the first private-community PCA led by a peasant community. The case of Chaparrí illustrates the struggle between local conservationists and proponents of extractivist development. This article explores the eco-territorial movement generated in Chaparrí from the activist research that brought together efforts with Belgian and Peruvian academics and students. The eco-territorial movement in Chaparrí has not only catalyzed transformations in community dynamics but also collaborations with a wide range of actors. The scholars from the activist research managed to integrate into the landscape of actors and institutions revolving around Chaparrí, opening new and innovative opportunities for collaboration.

Articulation of Resistance to Forestry Expansion in Uruguay and Argentina

2024-12-05T18:20:48-05:00

Piray 18 in Misiones (Argentina) and Paso Centurión in Cerro Largo (Uruguay) represent significant experiences of populations that managed to stop the advance of forestry. At the regional level, it has influenced the consolidation of foreign ownership and concentration of land ownership. The contexts also converge: these are areas considered productively marginal, on national borders (with Brazil and Paraguay), where hybrid forms of the national language (Spanish) coexist with subaltern languages (Jopará and Portuñol). The investigation of the subaltern politicization of local actors allows a different view of the hegemonic processes of economic, social and territorial transformation, based on the challenge to the development model installed in the policies of business promotion. The right to inhabit the territories and to a healthy environment is re-signified from these collective experiences and what we call environmental narrative is presented as a strategic resource of the actors in conflict to position themselves in opposition to forest agribusiness and to carry out strategic actions accordingly.

Between Life and Death

2024-12-05T18:20:52-05:00

Caucasia, municipality of Bajo Cauca Antioqueño in Colombia, expresses necropolitical and necrocapitalist dynamics that State and illegal actors deploy on the territory and specifically on the Cauca River. This action permeates the daily life and subjectivity of local communities in affective, territorial, identity and memory aspects, which are built in experiences and life trajectories in the territory. This text analyzes from a qualitative approach and social phenomenological method, which, from the experience of six participants, captures some meanings of this tributary. The field work considered interviews and accompaniment to their work in situ. Among the results, local meanings are highlighted, which emerge in the felt experience linked to the river, coexisting and in tension with hegemonic positions of the State and the armed groups.

Coca Cultivation and Illegal Mining in the Peruvian Amazon

2024-12-05T18:20:55-05:00

This article provides a narrative synthesis of the academic literature on coca cultivation and illegal mining in the Peruvian Amazon. Through secondary sources, it analyzes the expansion of these illicit economies into the eastern Amazon. In addition, the article presents and discusses four myths about illicit economies prevalent in public debate and the media, which prevent an understanding of the complexity behind these phenomena. The myths revolve around i) a full understanding of the extent and distribution of coca cultivation and illegal mining, ii) the existence of a direct relationship between illicit economies and violence, iii) the role of indigenous peoples in the expansion of these activities and, finally, iv) the absence or limited presence of the State in these contexts. Based on a narrative review of the literature, this article uses the findings of recent empirical evidence to question the validity of these myths. The article concludes with research conclusions and recommendations for the study of illicit economies.

Decolonizing Knowledge

2024-12-05T18:21:00-05:00

In Ecuador, the Andean highlands ecosystems, also known as páramos, are essential for producing water for human consumption and irrigation. Some páramos in the country are managed by indigenous communities that have contributed to their conservation through principles of reciprocity, territory and culture. However, these community-led initiatives are often marginalized by techno-scientific discourses and visions of water as promoted by public authorities as well as international experts working on these issues. Faced with these limitations, local water justice movements advocate for a more politicized approach that aims to shed light on the unequal distribution of benefits, access and control over water, as well as the tensions surrounding water rights, knowledge and cultural practices. This article draws on a case study in the communities of Cangahua, located in the northern highlands of Ecuador, where the Ñukanchik Urku páramo committee is contributing to watershed conservation based on community management principles. This study aims to examine the processes of decolonizing knowledge around water conservation practices in the community páramo of Ñukanchik Urku. Using participatory and transdisciplinary research methods from a decolonial perspective, this article questions the boundaries between techno-scientific and local and indigenous knowledge regarding water conservation.

Discourses and Environmental Controversies in the Footprints of Transhumant Livestock

2024-12-05T18:21:07-05:00

This paper reviews the current challenges of extensive and transhumant grazing, by comparing European and American processes. In the first case, Italian Molise’s experiences are analyzed, in the second case from North Argentine Patagonia. It investigates the footprints of passing cattle, searching the double recognition made by institutions and populations. It seeks to understand the strands that link the meanings of practices, addressing the socio-environmental challenges of territories between marginal and essentialized, which refer to structural aspects, customs and specific practices. The cases are compared by understanding them within the Anthropocene. To make visible their crossing tensions, it appeals to the Capitalocene critical theories, which associate sustainable development, dissemination and education with a new discourse on global heritage. From here, and in the light of experiences, relationships between intangible cultural heritage and sustainable development around livestock farming are made explicit, based on the shared difficulties in recognizing the activity outside of an essentializing perspective.

The Restorative City

2024-12-05T18:21:11-05:00

The symbiotic relationship between human beings and the environment has evolved in parallel, leaving its mark on the genetic structure of our species and the formulation of social statutes. This convergence is evident in the dynamics of modern life, the functional aspects, and the emotional anchors. Based on the postulates of environmental psychology and design proposals, this article presents a model called “restorative urbanism”, stating that proximity to urban nature is a critical element in the composition and design of urban environments, fostering better perceptions of external habitability and improving individual and collective well-being in biopsychosocial terms through the environmental restoration process, achieving urban-environmental and psychological sustainability. The importance of the proposal lies in its ability to question how the morphological characteristics of the sociophysical space influence the quality of the socioenvironmental, physical, and emotional relationships with the surrounding environment, especially in the face of urban, environmental, and climatic contingencies.

Observations on Public Policy Strategies Regarding Hydrogen in Chile and Uruguay

2024-12-05T18:21:15-05:00

This study examines public policies on green hydrogen production in Chile and Uruguay, evaluating the strategic documents that outline these policies in both countries, and paying special attention to the socio-environmental consequences of the development of this industry. Green hydrogen, produced using renewable energy, has emerged as a crucial alternative for decarbonization and global energy transition. In Latin America, a region with abundant natural resources and a growing interest in this industry, it presents a significant economic opportunity but also entails considerable environmental challenges. The study, which includes a discourse analysis of relevant documents, also proposes a theoretical analysis from three perspectives: equality, justice, and emancipation. Both countries exhibit a strong export orientation and a focus on economic benefits, while also showing a high degree of optimism and a lack of attention to potential negative socio-environmental repercussions. In summary, the article calls for a reconsideration of the current institutional frameworks from three classic axes of political theory, aiming to highlight the necessity for public policies that comprehensively address the region’s socio-environmental challenges and advocate for greater academic production density from the social sciences on this topic.

Environmental Governance and the Case of Green Policies for the Local Government of San Pedro Garza García in Mexico

2024-12-05T18:21:20-05:00

Environmental governance is a crucial field in natural resource management and environmental protection. In this context, research was conducted focusing on environmental governance with a specific emphasis on San Pedro Garza García, to address how environmental policies are developed and the impact of governance on their evolution and implementation. This municipality in Nuevo León, Mexico, is known primarily for its economy but has recently focused on environmental initiatives. The research methodology involved text analysis to understand and evaluate public policies, legal documents, reports, and other written resources. The main findings were that it has made significant legislative advances, but there remains a substantial gap regarding the development and dissemination of information, as well as the monitoring of environmental programs.