Indigenous Peoples, Traditional Communities and the Environment: The ‘Territorial Question’ Under the New Developmentalist Agenda in Brazil

Abstract

Laschefski and Zhouri analyze the consequences of the ‘new era of developmentalism’ introduced by the Brazilian center-left government (2003–2016) on indigenous peoples and traditional communities. They highlight that the reprimarization of the economy, albeit in the context of re-democratization and environmental governance, led to increasing land conflicts and reinforced Brazil’s subordinate role within the global division of labor. Attention is drawn on the Eurocentric views of leftist strategies which perceive traditional communities merely as rural poor to be integrated in urban labor markets. Given the fight of these groups for autonomy and the political responses that threaten their constitutional rights and Brazilian socio-biodiversity, the authors develop a complex ‘territorial question’ between competing urban capitalist and nonurban metabolisms that challenge visions of a united class struggle.