The anti-dam movement in Brazil: expertise and design conflicts in an industrial transition movement

Abstract

Research on the anti-dam movement in Brazil provides an opportunity to explore social theory at the intersections of social movement studies (SMS) and science and technology studies (STS) and to develop a Latin American perspective on the relationship. The review essay begins with an analysis from an SMS perspective of structural conditions, such as the opportunity structure, and of the strategies of framing and coalition building. Then the review examines STS perspectives on social movements including scientization and the circulation of knowledge in the public sphere. Likewise, beginning with an STS perspective based on the literature on the politics of design, the study examines SMS perspectives that draw attention to broader design conflicts involving choices for the national energy system, its relationship to different economic sectors, and the democratic governance of energy decision-making and remediation. The study of social movements, science, and technology in Latin America can also lead to perspectives that may be less well recognized in work that focuses mainly on wealthy industrialized countries, such as attention to the lack of autonomy of social fields and the ways in which the state's developmentalist aspirations become linked to social injustice.

Entre el petróleo y el medio ambiente: La lucha ambiental de la Corporación Regional Yariguíes-GEAM en Barrancabermeja, Colombia

“…Ahora bien, el análisis de la EOP estaría incompleto si no se tuviera en cuenta su dimensión epistémica, puesto que aquella se abre en torno a los debates técnicos y científicos que se plantean alrededor del fracking. Esta dimensión centra la atención en la manera en que los procesos de construcción de conocimiento influyen en la formación de la EOP (Hess, 2018). Por tanto, los conocimientos y CLIVATGE, número 9 … expertos que cada uno de los actores moviliza con miras a conseguir sus objetivos son parte importante en el análisis de la acción colectiva.…”

“…Como consecuencia de esta cientifización 19 -que genera barreras para la entrada en el campo de la lucha colectiva, pues requiere de suficientes recursos económicos e intelectuales para poder crear una contraexperticia (Hess, 2018)-Sandra junto con algunas familias de su comunidad comenzaron un proceso de aprendizaje acerca de la industria del petróleo, técnicas y químicos utilizados en el proceso de explotación de hidrocarburos. Esta adquisición de conocimiento es producto del despertar de la comunidad respecto a lo que pasaba en las plantas de tratamiento de lodo que se encuentran en áreas cercanas a sus viviendas.…”

The many-headed Hydra: assessing the Indigenous-hydropower cycle in Costa Rica

“…Furthermore, the difficulty in shifting away from hydropower at the international scale may be due to what Hale and colleagues (2013) refer to as "institutional inertia", wherein large organizations have difficulty transitioning to new technologies or incorporating new interests into their agendas. For example, in Brazil, Hess (2018) shows that a variety of structural conditions and resource compositions support the country's "technological lock-in" on hydropower. Similarly, Goldstein (2017) illustrates these technophilic beliefs in Brazil, where nuclear professionals support nuclear technology for its potential rather than its flaws, even after lessons from the Fukushima disaster were well circulated.…”

Resistance and Knowledge Production: Social Movements as Producers of Theory and Praxis

“…Comprised of communities directly affected by these projects 2 , MAB leads the fight against the removal of families from their homes and opposes the privatization of water, rivers, and natural resources-resources upon which the communities depend for their livelihood. The movement seeks to not just resist current energy policy, but to articulate alternatives (Hess, 2018;Klein, 2015; see Appendix A, Image 1).…”