From coca to cocoa: Conflicts, violence and hegemonic compromises in the turbulent Peruvian Amazonia settlement process: The case of Tocache

Daniel Coq-Huelva, Angie Higuchi, Ruth Arias-Gutiérrez and Rafaela Alfalla-Luque
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Daniel Coq-Huelva: Departamento de Economía Aplicada II, Instituto de Estudios sobre América Latina, Universidad de Sevilla, Sevilla, Spain
Angie Higuchi: Department of Business Administration, Universidad del Pacífico, Lima, Perú
Ruth Arias-Gutiérrez: Universidad Estatal Amazónica, Puyo, Ecuador
Rafaela Alfalla-Luque: Departamento de Dirección Financiera y Operaciones, Facultad de Turismo y Finanzas, Universidad de Sevilla, Sevilla, Spain

Environment and Planning A, 2024, vol. 56, issue 1, 136-154

Abstract: This article analyses the role of conventions, compromises and even violence in the intricate bio-social construction process of cocoa cultivation in the province of Tocache in the Peruvian Amazonia. This article discusses the different phases of the settlement process and its social, institutional and environmental bases. Specifically, the analysis focuses on the dramatic abandonment of coca cultivation and its replacement by alternative crops such as cocoa. Emphasis is placed on the centrality of agents’ normative coherence and coordination. For over 50 years, the civic–market compromise has framed agents’ discourses and actions, although it has sometimes been ostensibly distorted. This framing effect has also occurred in circumstances with considerable recourse to violence and armed conflict. Thus, this article focuses not only on justification processes but also on what happens ‘after justification’ and on how violent situations can coexist with discursive constructions with a relevant normative element.

Keywords: Convention Theory; agrifood chains; cocoa; coca; Amazonia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:envira:v:56:y:2024:i:1:p:136-154

DOI: 10.1177/0308518X231189569

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