scholarly journals Water as a tool for development. An analysis of the conflict of the Ñuble River, Chile

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Cristian Leaman-Constanzo
Keyword(s):  
Rural Communities ◽  
Political Ecology ◽  
Social Inequality ◽  
Water Rights ◽  
Water Project ◽  
Peasant Communities ◽  
Environmental Institutions ◽  
Access To Water ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Natural Water Bodies

<p>After three decades of neoliberal policies, there are growing concerns in Chile about how nature is used and understood. These concerns are reflected in the relationship between humans and natural water bodies which has reconceptualised the use of and access to water, especially for rural communities. These reconceptualisations have been affected by the model of water rights and river basin governance adopted which have raised issues about social inequality. As a result, rural communities have argued for greater participation in decision-making on matters that affect their lives.  This thesis explores conflict that arose around the Punilla Dam Project on the Ñuble River, Biobío Region in Chile. The research employs a political ecology perspective to explore the socio-environmental outcomes of water management in this case and in Chile more generally. The case illustrates how water is important for Chile as a tool for development, the role environmental institutions play, and the tensions between peasant communities, irrigators and hydroelectric interests, while placing these tensions in the context of wider economic and political structures. It is clear that water is key in Chile, hence an examination of the encounter between the model of development and nature is required. I argue that the outcomes of these encounters will increase social inequality and marginalisation, showing that a water project is not always good for all. The omission of these issues in places often rich both in biodiversity and socio-cultural heritage is a cause of concern for Chile and more globally.</p>

scholarly journals Water as a tool for development. An analysis of the conflict of the Ñuble River, Chile

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Cristian Leaman-Constanzo
Keyword(s):  
Rural Communities ◽  
Political Ecology ◽  
Social Inequality ◽  
Water Rights ◽  
Water Project ◽  
Peasant Communities ◽  
Environmental Institutions ◽  
Access To Water ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Natural Water Bodies

<p>After three decades of neoliberal policies, there are growing concerns in Chile about how nature is used and understood. These concerns are reflected in the relationship between humans and natural water bodies which has reconceptualised the use of and access to water, especially for rural communities. These reconceptualisations have been affected by the model of water rights and river basin governance adopted which have raised issues about social inequality. As a result, rural communities have argued for greater participation in decision-making on matters that affect their lives.  This thesis explores conflict that arose around the Punilla Dam Project on the Ñuble River, Biobío Region in Chile. The research employs a political ecology perspective to explore the socio-environmental outcomes of water management in this case and in Chile more generally. The case illustrates how water is important for Chile as a tool for development, the role environmental institutions play, and the tensions between peasant communities, irrigators and hydroelectric interests, while placing these tensions in the context of wider economic and political structures. It is clear that water is key in Chile, hence an examination of the encounter between the model of development and nature is required. I argue that the outcomes of these encounters will increase social inequality and marginalisation, showing that a water project is not always good for all. The omission of these issues in places often rich both in biodiversity and socio-cultural heritage is a cause of concern for Chile and more globally.</p>

scholarly journals Water Rights and Everyday Ch´ixi Practices in the Barrio El Faro in Medellín, Colombia

Water ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 2062 ◽  
Author(s):  
Botero-Mesa ◽  
Roca-Servat
Keyword(s):  
Water Supply ◽  
Political Ecology ◽  
Water Rights ◽  
Universal Coverage ◽  
Critical Studies ◽  
Everyday Practices ◽  
Bidirectional Relationship ◽  
Urban Rural ◽  
Access To Water ◽  
Ways Of Being

Situated at the margins of the urban–rural perimeter of the city of Medellín in Colombia, El Faro is a neighborhood in constant construction where life flourishes despite limited access to a formal water supply. By means of everyday practices, El Faro’s residents have claimed their right to water and mobilized to defend their self-managed community water supply. This article attempts to understand how these everyday water practices defy mainstream ideas on universal coverage, standardized mechanisms for access to water, and water rights. Based on an interdisciplinary theoretical framework combining political ecology, critical studies of law, and decolonial theory of everyday practice, this study applies an ethnographic approach in an effort to overcome exclusionary binaries in social theory. First, it recognizes the interdependent and bidirectional relationship between society and nature, allowing for the emergence of new ways of understanding water. Second, it challenges monolithic views of power, revealing the coexistence of multiple normative systems that interact with the state and its laws and, thus, the need for new ways of understanding the law. Third, it gives space for the expression of ch´ixi ways of being of those who live on borderlands. For these reasons, this article represents a contribution to the study of how everyday water practices affect equitable access to water and just water governing structures.

scholarly journals Environmental Conflicts Related to Urban Expansion Involving Agrarian Communities in Central Mexico

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (23) ◽  
pp. 6545 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victoria Ruiz Rincón ◽  
Joan Martínez-Alier ◽  
Sara Mingorria
Keyword(s):  
Rural Communities ◽  
Political Ecology ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Urban Expansion ◽  
Central Mexico ◽  
Environmental Conflicts ◽  
Peasant Communities ◽  
Agrarian Communities ◽  
Social Environmental ◽  
Political Economic

Rural territories and cultures have been increasingly sacrificed through depopulation, invasion by infrastructure, and the presence of industries which are incompatible with agriculture. Meanwhile, the expansion of urban space through demographic agglomeration and the concentration of activities in cities is leading to a progressively urbanised world. This article sheds light on the particularities of the relationship between urban expansion and the assault on agrarian modes of existence that survive at the diffuse urban frontiers in Central Mexico. A multiple case study was carried out; nine social-environmental conflicts where an agrarian community resisted the installation of urban infrastructure or city enterprises were analysed through the perspective of Political Ecology and environmental justice. Peasant communities question the political, economic, environmental, and cultural factors of the hegemonic social configuration as urban megaprojects menace their territory. In their struggles, they highlight that urban development undermines the very conditions necessary for the existence of the city, as its social metabolism depends in part on the resources these rural communities are defending.

Utopia e distopia da ecologia política, meio ambiente e justiça ambiental

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (20) ◽  
pp. 59-71
Author(s):  
Uilmer Rodrigues Xavier da Cruz ◽  
Ricardo Alexandrino Garcia
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Natural Resources ◽  
Political Ecology ◽  
Social Inequality ◽  
Environmental Inequality ◽  
Palabras Clave ◽  
The Social ◽  
Man And Nature ◽  
Resources Distribution ◽  
The Relationship

Resumo Ao longo dos anos, a Geografia demonstra grande preocupação com a relação inerente entre o homem e a natureza. Não é possível deixar de notar a associação existente entre a degradação ambiental, a desigualdade social e as práticas capitalistas de exploração e esgotamento dos recursos naturais. Tal ligação evoca o conceito de justiça social e seus aspectos, discutidos neste ensaio, o qual considera as relações sociais, de poder, e o meio ambiente, observa a possibilidade de equidade na distribuição de recursos, e compreende a perspectiva que conecta a desigualdade ambiental à desigualdade social. Palavras-chave: Ecologia política. Meio ambiente. Justiça ambiental. Abstract  Over the years, Geography has shown great concern upon the inherent relationship between man and nature. One cannot fail to notice the relationship between environmental degradation, social inequality, and capitalist practices of exploitation and depletion of natural resources. Such association evokes the social justice concept and its aspects, discussed in this essay, which considers social and power relations and the environment, observes equity possibility in resources distribution, and understands the perspective that connects environmental inequality to social inequality. Keywords: Political Ecology. Environment. Environmental Justice. Resumen A lo largo de los años, la Geografía ha demostrado gran preocupación por la relación inherente entre el hombre y la naturaleza. No es posible dejar de percibir la asociación entre la degradación del ambiente, la desigualdad social y las prácticas capitalistas de explotación y agotamiento de los recursos naturales. Tal vínculo evoca el concepto de justicia social y sus aspectos, discutidos en este ensayo, que considera las relaciones sociales de poder y el medioambiente, observa la posibilidad de equidad en la distribución de recursos y comprende la perspectiva que conecta la desigualdad ambiental a la desigualdad social. Palabras-clave: Ecología política. Medioambiente. Justicia ambiental.

scholarly journals Introduction: Peri-Urban Water Security in South Asia

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
Vishal Narain ◽  
Dik Roth
Keyword(s):  
Rural Communities ◽  
Political Ecology ◽  
South Asia ◽  
Economies Of Scale ◽  
Water Security ◽  
Ecological Modernization ◽  
Scale Efficiency ◽  
Urban South ◽  
Access To Water

AbstractThis chapter sets the context for the analysis of water security in peri-urban South Asia. Urbanization has been a key demographic trend globally as well as in South Asia, in the recent past and increasingly also in the future. While cities are often seen as engines of economic growth and development, and are associated with economies of scale, efficiency and sustainability, much urban growth occurs through the appropriation and reallocation of land and water from their peripheries. This creates patterns of deprivation for resource-dependent peri-urban and rural communities, as well as increasingly severe environmental problems, such as the over-extraction of groundwater and water pollution. This chapter first introduces the various perspectives, themes and cases presented in the book chapters. It then discusses urbanization and the peri-urban more specifically, introducing two contrasting views — ecological modernization and political ecology — and introduces the concept of water security. Referring to the examples from the book, the chapter then gives an overview of some of its key themes: the role of material infrastructure; property transformations and the declining commons; socially differentiated access to water; intervening in the peri-urban; and the role of conflict and cooperation.

The Relationship between Priority and Value of Irrigation Water Used with Prior Appropriation Water Rights

2020 ◽  
Vol 96 (3) ◽  
pp. 384-398 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gi-Eu Lee ◽  
Kimberly Rollins ◽  
Loretta Singletary
Keyword(s):  
Irrigation Water ◽  
Water Rights ◽  
Value Of Irrigation Water ◽  
The Relationship

Capitalism and the State in Latin America

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Esteban Torres ◽  
Carina Borrastero
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Social Inequality ◽  
Latin American ◽  
The State ◽  
American Sociology ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
The Relationship

This article analyzes how the research on the relation between capitalism and the state in Latin America has developed from the 1950s up to the present. It starts from the premise that knowledge of this relation in sociology and other social sciences in Latin America has been taking shape through the disputes that have opposed three intellectual standpoints: autonomist, denialist, and North-centric. It analyzes how these standpoints envision the relationship between economy and politics and how they conceptualize three regionally and globally growing trends: the concentration of power, social inequality, and environmental depletion. It concludes with a series of challenges aimed at restoring the theoretical and political potency of the autonomist program in Latin American sociology.

Ensuring access to water in an emergency context: Towards an overexploitation and contamination of water resources?

2021 ◽  
pp. 096466392110316
Author(s):  
Chloé Nicolas-Artero
Keyword(s):  
Drinking Water ◽  
Water Resources ◽  
Qualitative Methods ◽  
Water Scarcity ◽  
Water Rights ◽  
Environmental Crisis ◽  
Supply Network ◽  
Mining Pollution ◽  
Access To Water

This article shows how geo-legal devices created to deal with environmental crisis situations make access to drinking water precarious and contribute to the overexploitation and contamination of water resources. It relies on qualitative methods (interviews, observations, archive work) to identify and analyse two geo-legal devices applied in the case study of the Elqui Valley in Chile. The first device, generated by the Declaration of Water Scarcity, allows private sanitation companies to concentrate water rights and extend their supply network, thus producing an overexploitation of water resources. In the context of mining pollution, the second device is structured around the implementation of the Rural Drinking Water Programme and the distribution of water by tankers, which has made access to drinking water more precarious for the population and does nothing to prevent pollution.

Governance and Business-Society Relations in Areas of Limited Statehood: An Introduction

2021 ◽  
pp. 000765032098508
Author(s):  
Sameer Azizi ◽  
Tanja Börzel ◽  
Hans Krause Hansen
Keyword(s):  
Social Inequality ◽  
Ethnic Diversity ◽  
Global South ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Introductory Article ◽  
Collective Goods ◽  
International Ngos ◽  
State Actors ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Critical Reflections

In this introductory article we explore the relationship between statehood and governance, examining in more detail how non-state actors like MNCs, international NGOs, and indigenous authorities, often under conditions of extreme economic scarcity, ethnic diversity, social inequality and violence, take part in the making of rules and the provision of collective goods. Conceptually, we focus on the literature on Areas of Limited Statehood and discuss its usefulness in exploring how business-society relations are governed in the global South, and beyond. Building on insights from this literature, among others, the four articles included in this special issue provide rich illustrations and critical reflections on the multiple, complex and often ambiguous roles of state and non-state actors operating in contemporary Syria, Nigeria, India and Palestine, with implications for conventional understandings of CSR, stakeholders, and related conceptualizations.

Confinement risks and social inequality in Latin America: Evidence from Argentina

2021 ◽  
pp. 001139212199001
Author(s):  
Fiorella Mancini
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Social Inequality ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Vulnerable Groups ◽  
Cultural Aspects ◽  
Sociological Approach ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Health And Well Being

Social distancing and isolation measures in response to COVID-19 have confined individuals to their homes and produced unexpected side-effects and secondary risks. In Latin America, the measures taken by individual governments to mitigate these new daily and experiential risks have varied significantly as have the responses to social isolation in each country. Given these new social circumstances, the purpose of this article is to investigate, from the sociological approach of risk-taking, the relationship between confinement, secondary risks and social inequality. The author argues that secondary risks, despite their broad scope, are deeply structured by social inequalities in contemporary societies, especially in developing countries. To corroborate this hypothesis, a quantitative comparative analysis is performed for the Argentine case. Using data from a web-survey and correspondence analysis (CA), there are three major findings: (1) there are some widespread experiences similarly distributed across all social strata, especially those related to emotional and subjective matters; (2) other risks follow socio-structural inequalities, especially those corresponding to material and cultural aspects of consumption; (3) for specific vulnerable groups, compulsory confinement causes great dilemmas of decision-making between health and well-being.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document