Search

With the 2008 Constitution, Ecuador became a pioneer in the constitutional recognition of nature as a legal subject, while simultaneously promoting large-scale mining and placing it at the center of its economic future. Against this backdrop, the article focuses on the analysis of potential dogmatic contradictions within the Ecuadorian legal framework, between the rights of nature and mining entitlements associated with large-scale mining operations. In this context, it provides a synthesis of the trajectory and development of the rights of nature in Ecuador, alongside an historical overview of large-scale mining in the country and a brief summary of the environmental impacts documented in academic literature. Based on this, a series of doctrinal tension points were identified, as per the provisions of the Ecuadorian Constitution. To develop this article, the theoretical-doctrinal method was employed, encompassing two levels: hermeneutic and theoretical-doctrinal. The argument presented posits that the Ecuadorian legal regime has not been adequately constructed or updated to integrate the principles of the constitutional recognition of the rights of nature, nor to address the potential violations of these rights resulting from large-scale mining activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change as a phenomenon that demands urgent attention origins new colonizing and modernizing discourses, practices and logics leading to a "climatic eco-governmentality". Tied to this global regime, projects of "mitigation" and "adaptation" become instruments of the "conduct of conduct" of specific populations, in particular of indigenous people. This article studies an example of such a project: The Foreccsa project in the Pichincha province, Ecuador. It was analyzed through the combination of a "peripheral" participant-observer methodology with discourse analysis elements. The analysis leads to conclude that the design and implementation of this project are framed in logics that drive to the homogenization of the behavior of the affected indigenous communities, in the way they face climate change, through the "knowledge standardization" based on a validated vision by parties of the geopolitical north. This process facilitates the control of these populations, as well as their resources and territories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Ecología Política is the property of Fundacio ENT and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In this article we study a social conflict case related to a large-scale mining project in Ecuador (in the so-called Intag area), from a mixed critical geography and political ecology perspective. We intend to address to what extent this two-decades-long conflict led to significant changes in the territorialities in the area. We interpret the creation of the Junin's Comunity Reserve as a re-territorialization process, led by surrounding communities, threatened by the territoriality that try to impose transnational "megamining" capitals. The study evidences the relevance of the concept of "de-reterritorialization" coined by Haesbaert. We think that it also shows that, in the context of an accelerated conversion of Latin American territories to the logic of transnational capital, the sequential dynamics "des-" and then "re-"territorialization by a national or transnational actor is not systematic. It indicates instead, that this conversion is a contradictory process in which antagonistic territorialities are embodied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present article, I evaluate the relevance of the concept of accumulation by dispossession in the case of large-scale mining in Africa and Latin America. I inventory and classify various types of dispossession processes associated with the implementation of large-scale mining activities in both regions. I evidence the relevance of this category in these two contexts, and its theoretical power, by showing how it captures essential elements of the dynamics of capitalism at the global level. In both regions, the processes constitutive of accumulation by dispossession are very similar. Social struggles against large-scale mining on both continents share common global determinants. This evidences the possibility of south-south alliances between these struggles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Acta Sociologica (0186-6028) is the property of Instituto de Investigaciones Filosoficas and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Accumulation due to dispossession in Latin America has intensified in the last decade, creating new areas of sacrifice for the installation of hydrocarbon, energy-mining, monoculture, agroindustry and biofuel projects. These projects have brought with them an assemblage of roads and infrastructures to locate, extract, and transport commodities to the global market. While the national and international elites obtain the economic benefits of said projects, new forms of dispossession of territories and common goods in the region are renewed. This article offers a conceptual approach of incarnat- ed dispossessions. It also shows a panorama of the forms of resistance of local communities that form defense fronts and create organizations, with women who face the precarization of their livelihoods taking on strong protagonist role. The contemporary resistances and re-existences are anchored to the historicity of the regional struggles, strengthening or recreating identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]