From Resistance to Creation: Socio-Environmental Activism in Chile’s “Sacrifice Zones”

Katia Valenzuela-Fuentes, Esteban Alarcón-Barrueto and Robinson Torres-Salinas
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Katia Valenzuela-Fuentes: Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences, Universidad de Concepción, Concepción 4070386, Chile
Esteban Alarcón-Barrueto: Department of Sociology and Gender Studies, Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales—FLACSO Ecuador, Quito 170201, Ecuador
Robinson Torres-Salinas: Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences, Universidad de Concepción, Concepción 4070386, Chile

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 6, 1-21

Abstract: The last decade has witnessed the proliferation of socio-environmental conflicts across Chile, characterized by the resistance of local communities against extractive and industrial projects. Increasingly, these conflicts have revealed the multiple injustices experienced by communities living in sacrifice zones. A sacrifice zone can be defined as a segregated place where the quality of life of its communities is compromised in the name of progress and capital accumulation. By focusing on socio-environmental struggles taking place in Quintero-Puchuncaví Bay, Coronel Bay, and Hualpén-Talcahuano Bay, three highly polluted and industrialized areas in Chile, this article explores the views and practices developed by grassroots activists in their quest for resisting and moving beyond the capitalist and extractivist model of development. By conducting a thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews with 32 socio-environmental activists, this qualitative study provides a detailed account of how they understand a sacrifice zone and resist in these areas. Furthermore, it describes alternatives to capitalist and extractivist development envisioned and enacted by grassroots movements, expanding on the notions of territorial sovereignty and “buen vivir”.

Keywords: socio-environmental struggles; sacrifice zones; “buen vivir” Chile; extractivism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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