Whose Development? How Women Living Near the Yanacocha Mine, Peru, Envision Potential Futures

Among women opposing expansion of mining operations in Cajamarca, Peru, narratives of preferred alternatives diverge: from sustainable mining, to alternative economic development, to more radical alternatives to ‘development’. In these accounts, both their relative powerlessness and agency become apparent. This article critically explores women’s views of development and their imaginings of their region with or without mining. I argue that those who opposed mining show a continuing engagement with questions of development in the aftermath of conflict over natural resource extraction, highlighting a common thread of desires for bottom-up initiatives embracing local knowledge, practice and history

Anthropocene and "development" : intertwined trajectories since the beginning of the Great Acceleration = Antropoceno e "desenvolvimento" : trajetórias entrelaçadas desde o começo da Grande Aceleração

Objectives: We aim to propose the thesis that the trajectories of the Anthropocene and the current mainstream understandings of development are intertwined from the beginning. It means that the Anthropocene and the “development” are coetaneous: the implementation of development policies for the so-considered underdeveloped regions started to happen at the same time of what is known as The Great Acceleration of production, consumption and environmental degradation in a global level. Method: In this conceptual paper, we adopt a decolonial critique as an analytical lens and argue that different geopolitical positions may be necessary for approaching the issue of the Anthropocene from epistemological reflections that can include the cultural and political context of the production and reproduction of local knowledge. Results: Our theoretical argumentation sheds light on the role of Global North and South relations in shaping the environmental crisis. Latin America (LA) exemplifies the modus operandi of the intertwinement of the practical effects of development policies and the environmental consequences underlying the Anthropocene, in which natural resources are over-explored to satisfy export-oriented trade, from the South toward the North. LA is not only a propitious context to show the validity of our thesis, but also the source of alternatives to such developmental model. Conclusion: The emphasis on development as a cause of the Anthropocene supports The Great Acceleration thesis. The proposition of the name Developmentocene comes from the thesis that development and Anthropocene are coetaneous, the intertwinement of both resulting in the very definition of the new epoch.Objetivo: Buscamos propor a tese de que as trajetórias do Antropoceno e o entendimento atualmente dominante sobre desenvolvimento estão entrelaçadas desde o começo. Isso implica que o Antropoceno e o “desenvolvimento” são coetâneos: a implementação de políticas de desenvolvimento em regiões tidas como subdesenvolvidas começou a acontecer ao mesmo tempo em que teve início A Grande Aceleração da produção, do consumo e da degradação ambiental em nível global. Método: Neste artigo conceitual, nós adotamos a crítica decolonial como lente analítica e argumentamos a necessidade de diferentes posições geopolíticas para abordar a questão do Antropoceno a partir de reflexões epistemológicas que possam incluir o contexto cultural e político de produção e reprodução do conhecimento. Resultados: Nossa argumentação teórica enaltece as relações entre o Norte e o Sul Global no delineamento da crise ambiental. A América Latina (AL) exemplifica o modus operandi do entrelaçamento entre os efeitos práticos das políticas de desenvolvimento e as consequências ambientais subjacentes ao Antropoceno, em que os recursos naturais são explorados além dos limites para satisfazer o comércio para exportações, desde o Sul para o Norte. Nesse quadro, a AL não é apenas um contexto propício para mostrar a validade da nossa tese, mas também a fonte de alternativas a esse modelo de desenvolvimento. Conclusão: A ênfase no desenvolvimento como causa do Antropoceno apoia a tese da Grande Aceleração. A proposição do nome Desenvolvimentoceno advém da tese de que o desenvolvimento e o Antropoceno são coetâneos e que o entrelaçamento de ambos resulta na própria definição da nova época

Resistindo ao desenvolvimento neocolonial: a luta do povo de Andalgalá contra projetos megamineiros

A América Latina vem experimentando uma nova era de declarada fé dos governos no mito do desenvolvimento, em articulação com a expansão de políticas extrativistas exportadoras em um contexto de renovada dependência. A face mais dramática do extrativismo na região tem sido a crescente presença de corporações mineiras transnacionais apoiadas por governos nacionais e regionais e por instituições internacionais financeiras e de apoio ao desenvolvimento, e intensamente resistidas por movimentos sociais populares. Neste artigo apresentamos o caso de Andalgalá (uma pequena cidade na Província de Catamarca, na Argentina) e as lutas do povo contra corporações mineiras transnacionais e seus aliados. Na tradição da Filosofia da Libertação e do método ana-dialético de Dussel, nos engajamos com o que tem sido denominado "comunidades argentinas do NÃO", expressando sua oposição a formas neocoloniais de desenvolvimento e gestão. Neste artigo estamos especificamente interessados em compreender como dois dispositivos gerencialistas usados pelas corporações mineiras, responsabilidade social corporativa (RSC) e pactos de governança, impactam a luta do povo. Acima de tudo, este artigo oferece instantâneos de batalhas na linha de frente do extrativismo. Esperamos ter dado voz àquelas pessoas que normalmente não são ouvidas, criando um espaço para suas visões sobre um tipo diferente de desenvolvimento.</jats:p

The 'indigenous native peasant' trinity: imagining a plurinational community in Evo Morales's Bolivia

Over the last two decades Latin America has been a laboratory for the implementation of new models of state and citizenship. In Bolivia the (neo)liberal multicultural paradigm dominant in the 1990s has recently been replaced by a plurinational paradigm, which implies a deepening of the decentralization process and the strengthening of rights for traditionally marginalized social sectors. This paper describes the process of construction of a plurinational ‘imagined community’ and, in particular, of one of its core narratives: The ‘indigenous native peasant’. I argue that the negotiation of this collective identity and its inclusion as one of the core ideas in the new constitution is the result of a contingent strategy in response to a highly conflictive scenario, which has not been, however, able to trigger a change in the way people identify themselves. Yet in recent years, social movements’ identities have been shaped by centrifugal forces. These forces should be understood as the result of a process of collective actors’ adaptation to institutional and regulatory reforms and contribute to explaining the increase of new intrasocietal conflicts linked to the redefinition of citizenship and territorial boundaries

Conflict transformation in indigenous' peoples territories: doing environmental justice with a 'decolonial turn'

One of the distinctive features of environmental justice theory in Latin America is its influence by decolonial thought, which explains social and environmental injustices as arising from the project of modernity and the ongoing expansion of a European cultural imaginary. The decolonization of knowledge and social relations is highlighted as one of the key challenges for overcoming the history of violent oppression and marginalization in development and conservation practice in the region. In this paper we discuss how conflict transformation theory and practice has a role to play in this process. In doing so, we draw on the Socio-environmental Conflict Transformation (SCT) framework elaborated by Grupo Confluencias, which puts a focus on building community capacity to impact different spheres of power: people and networks, structures and cultural power. We discuss this framework and its practical use in the light of ongoing experiences with indigenous peoples in Latin America. We propose that by strengthening the power of agency of indigenous peoples to impact each of these spheres it is possible to build constructive intra and intercultural relations that can help increase social and environmental justice in their territories and thus contribute to decolonizing structures, relations and ways of being

Rents, knowledge and neo-structuralism: transforming the productive matrix in Ecuador

This paper explores the relationship between ground rent, production and knowledge in Ecuador’s neo-structuralist, state-led project to transform the productive matrix. Based upon insights from the Marxian approach to the critique of political economy, we interrogate how neo-structuralism has conceptualised the relationship between ‘natural resource income’ and ‘knowledge-based’ economic development. The paper argues that a rent-theoretical perspective, which takes seriously the regional unfolding of uneven geographical development in Latin America, can highlight the limits of a national development plan conceived according to the logic of Schumpeterian efficiency. In doing so, the paper identifies the contradictory relationship between natural resource exports, state-led ‘knowledge’-based development and capital accumulation. On this basis the paper offers a historically and empirically informed critical analysis of selective import substitution industrialisation and vanguard science and technology strategies designed to transition Ecuador away from primary resource dependence