Socio-ecological conflicts and environmental justice viewed from the Chaco Occidental, a soy frontier of globalisation
[10/2012 – 06/2017]
The cultivation, commodification and distribution of soy have, particularly in Latin America, undergone enormous growth and internationalisation processes. Driven by its high lucrativeness new territories for GM soybean monocultures are explored. Here, the example of the Chaco Occidental, a traditionally peripheral region with high deficits in terms of economic and infrastructure is presented. Due to globalisation processes and favoured by climate change, significant structure and power shifts are observed at the new frontier of globalisation, leading to socio-ecological conflicts among old and new regional actors as well as varying interests groups.
The focus of this project takes those socio-ecological conflicts as a starting and anchor point for the exploration of actors (actively and passively) involved and offers a new perspective by applying an analytical framework of environmental justice, going beyond activist research in this field. By mapping three examples from the Chaco Occidental, different levels of inclusion in globalisation processes show adapted local strategies and levels of enforcement, highlighting the societal relationship with nature.
| Project duration: | [10/2012 – 06/2017] |
| Financiation: | DOC Fellowship of the Austrian Academy of Science at the Institute of Geography, Innsbruck University, Austria. [07/2014 – ] |
| Marietta Blau Scholarship (OEAD, Austria) at the Instituto Superior de Estudios Sociales, Universidad Nacional de Tucumán, Argentina. [10/2013 – 06/2014] | |
| Scholarship for Short-Term Studies Abroad (KWA, Innsbruck University) at the Instituto Superior de Estudios Sociales, Universidad Nacional de Tucumán, Argentina. [08/2013 – 09/2013] | |
| Doctorate Scholarship for Young Researchers, Innsbruck University, Austria. [10/2012 – 09/2013] | |
| Keywords: | Soybean, Northwest-Argentina, socio-ecological conflict, environmental justice, globalisation, |