Critical perspectives on the productivity of environmental conflicts. Lessons from Latin America

Speaker: Gabriela Merlinsky

Research line(s): Political ecology, environmental conflicts, climate justice, environmental sociology, feminist political ecology

Date: 01/02/2024
Time: 13.00h
Room: Mercè Rodoreda 24.023, UPF Campus de la Ciutadella

Abstract
In Argentina and other Latin American countries, environmental conflicts give rise to debates about the advance of extractive frontiers and their political, social, and environmental consequences.  The mobilization of indigenous, peasant, feminist, academic, professional, and other civil society organizations allow the elaboration of public concerns and the production of localized definitions of environmental justice.

This seminar will present a theoretical-methodological perspective that allows analyzing the productivity of environmental conflicts in terms of political and legal socialization, public debate, and the generation of social learning.  The analytical categories will be tested for their potential and limitations through four case studies: the controversy over the pollution of the Matanza-Riachuelo Basin, the conflict over the pulp mills in the Uruguay River, the movement of the "pueblos fumigados" in Argentina, and the women's movement in the "sacrifice zones" in Chile.

Keywords: environmental conflicts, public debate, environmental justice

Bio:  Gabriela is sociologist from the University of Buenos Aires, PHD in Social Sciences on the same university and PHD in Geography at Paris 8 University. She is a full professor at UBA and senior researcher at the National Scientific and Technical Research Council of Argentina. Her main fields are political ecology, urban studies, and environmental sociology. She has conducted research on environmental conflicts, political ecology of water, gender, environmental and climate justice. Among other works, she has published “Política, derechos y justicia ambiental. El conflicto del Riachuelo” (2013, Fondo de Cultura Económica), the series “Cartografías del conflicto Ambiental en Argentina” (2020, 2014, 2016; CICCUS/CLACSO), “Arte y Ecología Política” (2020, IIGG-CLACSO) and “Toda ecología es política. Las luchas por el derecho al ambiente en busca de alternativas de mundos” (2021, Siglo Veintiuno Editores).