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The planetary boundaries concept has profoundly changed the vocabulary and representation of global environmental issues. We bring a critical social science perspective to this framework through the notion of societal boundaries and aim to provide a more nuanced understanding of the social nature of thresholds. We start by highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of planetary boundaries from a social science perspective. We then focus on capitalist societies as a heuristic for discussing the expansionary dynamics, power relations, and lock-ins of modern societies that impel highly unsustainable societal relations with nature. While formulating societal boundaries implies a controversial process ‒ based on normative judgments, ethical concerns, and socio-political struggles ‒ it has the potential to offer guidelines for a just, social-ecological transformation. Collective autonomy and the politics of self-limitation are key elements of societal boundaries and are linked to important proposals and pluriverse experiences to integrate well-being and boundaries. The role of the state and propositions for radical alternative approaches to well-being have particular importance. We conclude with reflections on social freedom, defined as the right not to live at others’ expense. Toward the aim of defining boundaries through transdisciplinary and democratic processes, we seek to open a dialogue on these issues.

This article studies the conditions in which referendums (consultas populares) on mining are held in Colombia and their effects on the democratic political system. It is in the form of a case study of the referendums which arose from local communities' opposition to the La Colosa mining project, in the town of Cajamarca (Tolima). The analysis is based on theoretical approaches to the structure of political opportunity and local mobilization in the context of participatory democracy. The holding of a referendum (or “consultation with the people”) results from short- and long-term political and institutional changes and the use of different mechanisms for spreading opinions. In the same manner, the article points out that such referendums have impacts on the political sphere: they mobilize a large part of the population, influence political agendas and institutional norms and open new opportunities for debate and democratic participation.

Un indicador de la actual crisis civilizatoria es la alta dependencia en el petróleo. Así, los agrocombustibles se han presentado como transición sostenible para superar esta situación, y simultáneamente, combatir el cambio climático y promover el desarrollo rural. Sin embargo su producción ha generado la emergencia de conflictos socioambientales en territorios locales. Este artículo caracteriza el modelo de producción de los agrocombustibles en el marco de la estrategia de desarrollo neoextractivista. Además, analiza desde una perspectiva de la Ecología Política las disputas territoriales en el municipio de María la Baja, Colombia, donde la producción de aceite de palma ha crecido masivamente durante la última década. Abstract High oil dependency and the hegemony of resource intensive life style and production patterns within the Western Hemisphere are indicators of multiple crises phenomena, such as the climate and energy crisis. In this context, agrofuels have been presented as a triple solution to fight climate change, reduce oil dependency, and promote rural development. Nevertheless, the promotion of agrofuels at the global scale has lead to the emergence of socio-environmental conflicts at the local scale. From a transnational perspective, this paper characterizes the production of agrofuels as a particular form of a “neo-extractive” development model. Besides, from a political-ecological perspective, the article offers an analysis of the territorial transformation processes and disputes in the municipality of María la Baja, Colombia, where the production of palmoil has been expanding during the last decade.

The aim of this text is to make sense of the emerging political-institutional, territorial, and socio-ecological dynamics and contradictions of neo-extractivism in Latin America in the context of global capitalist development. In contrast to some existing literature, we argue that the term ‘neo-extractivism’ should not be restricted to countries with progressive governments but be applied to all Latin American societies that, since the 1970s and especially since the year 2000, depend predominantly on the exploitation and exportation of nature. We argue that the often vague usage of the term neo-extractivism can be strengthened when it is seen in line with dominant development models. Therefore we refer to regulation theory and its historical heuristic of different phases of capitalist development. This enables us to look at the temporal-spatial interdependencies between shifting socio-economic and technological developments, world market structures, and political-institutional configurations that characterize neo-extractivism across scales and beyond national borders.