Production/destruction in Latin America

Barandiarán, Javiera; Walsh, Cormac

doi:10.2458/v24i1.20962

Cited by 2 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…The second disruptive strategy gives a powerful name to past industrial mistakes, false promises, and system failures: rubble (Gordillo, 2014). 13 I use the term in both a literal and conceptual sense to ''highlight the dislocations caused by new forms of [industrial] production'' (Barandiara´n and Walsh, 2017). In comparing the EIA they are working on with past EIAs, scientists and consultants would be required to identify the ''rubble'' left by past industrial projects as a reminder of the high social, economic, and environmental costs of development efforts.…”

Section: Documenting Rubble To Challenge Modernity In Eia Baselinesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Had Pascua Lama's scientists and consultants been asked to identify in the EIA what forms of rubble the project would leave behind, they would have had to grapple with the question, what life forms will survive this pace and type of environmental change? (Barandiara´n and Walsh, 2017). In this case, the survival of the glaciers and the life-forms that depend on them-from those microbial in size to large agricultural systems-is in doubt.…”

Section: Documenting Rubble To Challenge Modernity In Eia Baselinesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Documenting rubble to shift baselines: Environmental assessments and damaged glaciers in Chile

Barandiarán

2019

Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space

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Worldwide, governments use environmental impact assessments (EIAs) to manage the environmental impacts of industrial activity. EIAs contain baselines that describe the specific environment where the project would go, and impact evaluations that identify ways to eliminate, reduce, or compensate the environmental harms the project would have. Although EIA baselines promised to democratize and improve decision-making, in practice, many affected communities, environmental activists, and scholars of EIAs find that baselines often obscure certain ecological impacts. Drawing on science and technology studies and environmental history, I reflect on why this happens and propose that it results from the ways in which EIA baselines reproduce modernist views of economic growth and progress. I analyze EIA baselines as a “memory practice” which meet the needs of the present by projecting a timeless, static past to be preserved. This naturalization of modernism can be challenged through two correctives: to compare projects rather than natures in EIA baselines, and to document existing and potential forms of “rubble” resulting from industrial activity. I illustrate these arguments with the case of glaciers and efforts to protect them from the impacts of the Pascua Lama gold mine located in the high-altitude Andes.

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Section: Documenting Rubble To Challenge Modernity In Eia Baselinesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Documenting Rubble To Challenge Modernity In Eia Baselinesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Documenting rubble to shift baselines: Environmental assessments and damaged glaciers in Chile

Barandiarán

2019

Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space

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On the destructive production of food: some lessons from South America

Gordillo

2017

Journal of Political Ecology

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This essay offers some general reflections on the destructive dimensions of corporatized forms of food production in contemporary South America. The dialectic of production and destruction that has long defined capitalism has too often been figured as "creative destruction", a phrase that can make the negative social and environmental impact of food commodity production seem to be something acceptable and even positive. The authors who contributed to this Special Section on Production/destruction in Latin America reveal, in contrast, that destruction has been integral to industrial or large-scale forms of food production in different parts of the continent. These articles remind us that the creation of a less destructive, more egalitarian world requires (among other things) not only the creation of renewable forms of energy but also a radical rethinking of the ways in which food is produced, distributed, and consumed. And the experience of South America in the past decade teaches us about the political limits of more progressive models of accumulation that, for all their merits, did not dare to delink the production of food from the short-sighted nature of corporate models that prioritize profits and hyper-productivity over social justice and sustainability. Key words: Creative destruction; destructive production; ruination; rubble; food; commodities RésuméCe commentaire offre des réflexions générales sur les dimensions destructrices de la production alimentaire par les entreprises de l'Amérique du Sud contemporaine. La dialectique de la production et de la destruction qui a défini le capitalisme a souvent été considérée comme une «destruction créative». Cette phrase fait que la production commerciale à grande échelle semble être acceptable et même positive, malgré ses impacts sociaux et environnementaux négatifs. Les auteurs qui ont contribué à cette section spéciale sur la production/la destruction en Amérique latine révèlent, en revanche, que la destruction a fait partie intégrante de la production industrielle à grande échelle dans tout le continent. Ces articles nous rappellent que la création d'un monde moins destructif et plus égalitaire exige la création d'énergies renouvelables, mais aussi une repensation radicale de la manière dont les aliments sont produits, distribués et consommés. Et l'expérience de l'Amérique du Sud au cours de la dernière décennie nous apprend qu'il existe des limites politiques aux modèles progressifs d'accumulation. Ceux-ci ne délignent pas la production de nourriture de la pensée corporelle à courte vue qui privilégie les bénéfices et l'hyperproductivité par rapport à la justice sociale et à la durabilité.

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Production/destruction in Latin America

Cited by 2 publications

References 32 publications

Documenting rubble to shift baselines: Environmental assessments and damaged glaciers in Chile

Documenting rubble to shift baselines: Environmental assessments and damaged glaciers in Chile

On the destructive production of food: some lessons from South America

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