https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3865-9201
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ABSTRACT
This article explores the emergence of decolonial political subjectivities in the struggle for the defence of territories and against extractivism in Greater Concepción, Chile. Drawing on a dialogue between decolonial and feminist scholarship, Latin American political ecology, and the praxis of Chilean socioenvironmental movements, we argue that the struggles for the defence of territories in Abya Yala cannot be understood through the lens of modern citizenship, as they are embracing territorialized, racialised, and feminized struggles that challenge the ontological and epistemological foundations of capitalist coloniality. This contribution is informed by participatory action research, militant ethnography, and a commitment to ‘sentipensar’ the defence of Mother Earth. Our findings suggest that the feminization of the struggle, embracing of ancestral ontologies and cosmologies, and decolonization of knowledge production are three features currently shaping decolonial political subjectivities in southern Chile, opening radical possibilities of transformation.
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank all the research participants who generously shared their experiences, struggles, and dreams, and made this work possible. This article has been written in the memory of the Chilean socioenvironmental activist Pablo Rivas, eternal defender of the territories of Abya Yala and beloved lawyer of the people.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Data availability statement
The data presented in this study are available on request from the corresponding author. The data are not publicly available as it contains information that could compromise the privacy of research participants.
Institutional review board statement
The study was conducted according to the guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki, and approved by the Ethics, Bioethics and Biosecurity Committee of the Research and Development Office, Universidad de Concepción. Furthermore, this study has been subjected to a final monitoring by the same Committee, as stated in certificate CEBB 878-2021, March 2021.
Notes
1 Abya Yala is a notion coined by the cunas in Panama ‘to refer to the territory and the indigenous nations of the Americas’. The use of this name seeks to ‘confront the colonial weight present in ‘Latin America’ understood as a cultural project of westernization’ (Walsh, Citation2007, p. 236).
2 This uprising (the so called ‘estallido social’) triggered a constituent process (2021-2022) that ended with a proposed Constitution in July 2022. In September 2022, this draft was rejected by Chilean voters.
3 Drawing on Thrift’s work (Citation2007) we invert the traditional notion of participant observation. Rather than detached observation, ‘observant participation’ emphasizes engagement for the exploration of political phenomena (Thrift, Citation2007; Valenzuela-Fuentes, Citation2019).
4 The ancestral Mapuche territory encompasses parts of Chile and Argentina (Salas, Citation2020).
5 Although the notion of ‘buen vivir’ can certainly be traced back to Ecuadorian and Bolivian Indigenous Peoples, it is important to acknowledge the diversity of social actors who are engaging with this concept, some with the purpose of political co-optation, others with the goal of finding radical post-development paths where humans and nature coexist in interdependence and harmony. Considering our work with socioenvironmental movements in Greater Concepción, Chile, the notion of ‘buen vivir’ is incorporated in their vocabulary as an attempt to draft a radical political horizon that respectfully learns from the experience of several Latin American indigenous movements. In agreement with Escobar (Citation2018) and Kothari et al. (Citation2014), we believe that Chilean activists understand ‘buen vivir’ as a plural, open and under-construction category, thus both indigenous and non-indigenous land defenders can learn and contribute to this living notion.
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Notes on contributors
Katia Valenzuela-Fuentes
Katia Valenzuela-Fuentes is an assistant professor at the Department of Sociology, Universidad de Concepción, Chile and researcher at the Centre for Sustainable Urban Development – CEDEUS Chile. She completed a PhD in Politics at the University of Nottingham, United Kingdom. Her main research interests include political sociology, social movements, political ecology, participatory action research and critical epistemologies.
Robinson Torres-Salinas
Robinson Torres-Salinas is assistant Professor at the Department of Sociology (Faculty of Social Sciences) and the Department of Land Planning (Faculty of Environmental Sciences), Universidad de Concepción, Chile. He is also is an associate researcher in the Water & Society Cluster of CRHIAM and an active member of the WATERLAT-GOBACIT Network. He completed his PhD in Environmental Social Science from Arizona State University. His academic background is interdisciplinary with a focus on water and socioenvironmental transformations from the standpoint of environmental sociology and political ecology.
Bárbara Jerez-Henríquez
Bárbara Jerez-Henríquez is a lecturer at the Department of Sociology, Universidad de Concepción, Chile and researcher at the ANILLOS project ‘Codesign labs for climate change: commons governance and care in coastal areas of south central Chile’. She completed her PhD in Latin American Studies at the the National Autonomous University of Mexico – UNAM. Her research interests include political ecology, Latin American decoloniality and socio-environmental conflicts.