Paper short abstract:

This paper discusses household level disaster risk reduction in urban Bolivia, and to what extent we can talk about a ‘roll out’ of neoliberalism in a context of autonomous adaptation.

Paper long abstract:

With increasing urbanisation and the effects of climate change, natural and man-made disasters are becoming more common in urban areas of the global south. Research and policy within disaster studies has shifted from top down capital intensive solutions to a promotion of bottom up strategies that focus on the capacity of vulnerable groups to negotiate their lives in relation to the environment (autonomous adaptation). However, this approach is criticised for depoliticising the environmental vulnerability of affected households, as adaptation is expected to occur in a political vacuum, with little state intervention. This has been labelled as a process of 'roll out' neoliberalism.

My research investigates what vulnerable households are doing to reduce their disaster risk in hazardous Bolivian communities where state intervention is minimal. This is achieved by focusing on informal housing construction and the application of the concept of the home in order to explore the multiple motivations that are articulated through the construction of the house. The research also explores local governance in relation to environmental vulnerability in order to assess whether one can talk about a 'roll out' of neoliberalism, in which the state is seeking to produce more 'autonomous' civil societies that rely more on individual actions than on coordinated institutions in the (re)production of their social lives in relation to the biophysical world (Castree and Felli 2012)

Paper short abstract:

This paper will explore the dynamics of contemporary approaches to the environment by looking at the construction of an Olympic Village on part of a preserved, albeit abandoned, mangrove in the periphery of Rio de Janeiro, against the backdrop of the reform of the Forest Code.

Paper long abstract:

Depictions of the natural environment have often been associated with processes of nation formation. In the 90's, two public opinion surveys were conducted in Brazil to prove that 'edenismo' (from Eden), the exaltation of the natural qualities of the landscape common in the romantic literature movement of the nineteenth century, is still alive today. Using the indicator 'national pride', the conclusion of the survey was that the main reason for Brazilians' national pride is 'nature'. This paper will explore how the institutionalisation of the environment, including the Forest Code and the Brazilian National System of Conservation Units, both granting rights to nature in a selective manner, is a major stake in Brazilian politics, with loud repercussions in the international arena. While there appears to be a rhetorical shift from the neo-liberal model towards progressive socio-environmental policies, alternative ways of achieving economic growth are treated with scepticism. Some stake-holders have an optimistic vision of the dialectical encounter between capitalism and limited natural resources and call that vision green economy, while others claim that social welfare should come first. This study will try to unveil the many voices in the contemporary discussion on environmental issues in Brazil by presenting the controversies around the reform of the Forest Code as a backdrop, and then focusing on what could be seen as a fractal of the overarching environmental picture: the construction of an Olympic Village on part of a preserved, albeit abandoned, mangrove in the periphery of Rio de Janeiro.

Paper short abstract:

This article examines whether and how local people in two Amazonian cities, Manaus and Novo Airão, perceive the Brazilian Amazon as a global natural resource, essential for human and environmental security and what are the consequences for being local in this global natural resource.

Paper long abstract:

This article examines whether and how local people in two Amazonian cities, Manaus and Novo Airão, perceive the Brazilian Amazon as a "global natural resource", essential for human and environmental security. It begins by providing an insight into the main points analysed by the existing literature, which for the most part view the concept of the Brazilian Amazon as a part of the "global commons" from an "etic" (culture-generic) perspective. In contrast, by using an "emic" (culture-specific) approach, based on a combination of 67 in-depth interviews and participant observation, the article examines the differences and similarities in viewpoint of local people in the Amazonas region, and analyses their perceptions in light of the existing literature. The findings reveal that global international demands tend to be adopted by national governments in the Global South without any adaptation to local needs, resulting in serious consequences to local human and environmental security. As a result, the article suggests that the concept of "interconnected geographies of care" would provide a better approach to the global challenges the Brazilian Amazon faces and help reveal the steps the Brazilian government needs to take to meet these challenges.

Paper short abstract:

The paper examines how Chiquitano people in Eastern Bolivia and state actors construct Monte Verde as indigenous territory. It points to remarkable continuities in the way that state actors and some Chiquitano leaders conceptualise the environment, land and resources in ‘post neo-liberal’ Bolivia.

Paper long abstract:

This paper examines how Chiquitano people in the Eastern Bolivian Santa Cruz department and state actors are constructing the environment and space of the Monte Verde territory. From the mid-1990s, three Chiquitano Organisations took advantage of the Bolivian government's neoliberal multicultural legislation in order to claim Monte Verde as first-peoples communal land (TCO). As Chiquitano began formulating their legal claim and settlement plans, and communities moved into Monte Verde, state administrative actors and NGOs pressured for the 'sustainable' exploitation of indigenous territories and 'territorial management'. Seemingly contradicting the constitutional text which defined TCOs as spaces where indigenous people 'maintain and develop their own forms of economic, social and cultural organisation', indigenous movements' could only gain territorial ownership if they administered the space and resources present as the state required.

In response, the Chiquitano organisation were involved in dividing the territory into 'zones of use' already before they received the legal title for their territory in 2007, representing a shift from subsistence and the emphasis on 'relational spaces', to a logic of production-oriented projects and spaces perceived as 'zones of utility' (cf. García Hierro and Surrallés, 2005: 10-11). This paper argues that an analysis of developments in Bolivian indigenous territories underway in so-called 'post neo-liberal' Bolivia point to a remarkable continuity, rather than a break, when it comes to the conceptualisation of resources, land and the environment from the side of local and national state actors, as well as some Chiquitano leaders and community members.

Paper short abstract:

This paper discusses the so-called ‘post-neoliberal’ turn in Bolivia. It argues that although certain social reforms have been made, the extractivist model of the MAS party forms a contradiction between the discourse and practice of the plurinational state.

Paper long abstract:

Bolivia has seen many seemingly progressive changes since the election of its first indigenous President, Evo Morales, in 2005 and with the announcement of the 2009 Constitution that gave unprecedented rights to both the indigenous and the Pachamama (Mother Earth). However, tensions between the state and social movements remain, with many questioning the economic development strategies of the Bolivian state based on environmentally degrading natural resource extraction, road building and dam construction projects that often take place within indigenous territories.

My research explores the case study of a national indigenous and environmental movement in opposition to the Bolivian government's proposed construction of a highway set to cut through an indigenous territory and national park, known as the TIPNIS (Territorio Indígena y Parque Nacional Isiboro Secure). This has involved a nine month period of fieldwork in Bolivia that has aimed to explore the creative tensions of contentious politics that acts to (re)configure the relations between the state and indigenous/social movements in Bolivia as well as the possible implications for the future politics of natural resource management and indigenous rights. Further to this, the research seeks to critically engage with social movement theory through ethnographic fieldwork that analyses the empirical realities of everyday grounded politics in the national campaign in defence of the TIPNIS.

Paper short abstract:

I will discuss with reference to the TIPNIS crisis how indigenous territorial sovereignty comes into conflict with developmental initiatives and resource extraction in contemporary Bolivia, exploring how underlying concepts of indigeneity and colonialism influence national environmental debate.

Paper long abstract:

Bolivian negotiators have played a vocal role in international climate summits, and indigenous rights and environmental issues would seem to go hand in hand in the discourse of the current MAS administration through concepts like the pachamama. President Evo Morales has however been accused by the country's indigenous leaders of promulgating a 'double discourse' on the environment, especially in the wake of the Tipnis crisis, in which a road building initiative came into conflict with the territorial claims of indigenous peoples. They claimed the road would further the 'colonisation' of their territory by highland coca- farmers. The road was also contested by indigenous social movements, asserting a vision of territoriality based on indigenous control, and resulting in environmental sustainability.

Morales called the People's World Conference on Climate Change (PWCCC) in Cochabamba in April 2010, in response to the 'weakness' of international climate agreements. Repeatedly emphasised at the PWCCC was the 'climate debt' which developed nations owe to the third world as the cost of having 'colonised' much of the 'carbon space' available in the atmosphere. Complex interweaving notions of colonialism and indigeneity seem to haunt debate and state strategy on the environment, evoking agentive landscapes of indigenous territoriality, and international development models. I will analyse state strategy and national debate on the environment as it navigates these underlying currents.