Skip to main content
Book cover

Environmental Governance in Latin America pp 58–85Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Social Metabolism and Conflicts over Extractivism

  • Chapter
  • Open Access

    • We’re sorry, something doesn't seem to be working properly.

    Please try refreshing the page. If that doesn't work, please contact support so we can address the problem.

  • First Online:

Abstract

The natural resource conflict dimension of environmental governance is usually centred on the social and political aspects of production systems and has hardly addressed the biophysical features of the natural resources themselves. Here we aim to address renewable and non-renewable resource-extraction conflicts in Latin America in the context of a changing global social metabolism and increasing demands for environmental justice (M’Gonigle, 1999; Sneddon, Howarth and Norgaard, 2006; Gerber, Veuthey and Martínez-Alier, 2009; Martinez-Alier et al., 2010). “Social metabolism” refers to the manner in which human societies organize their growing exchanges of energy and materials with the environment (Fischer-Kowalski, 1997; Martinez-Alier, 2009). In this chapter we use a sociometabolic approach to examine the material flows (extraction, exports, imports) of Latin American economies and furthermore look into the socioenvironmental pressures and conflicts that they cause. Sociometabolic trends can be appraised using different and complementary indicators. For instance, the Human Appropriation of Net Primary Production (HANPP) measures to what extent human activities appropriate the biomass available each year for ecosystems (Haberl et al., 2007). Other examples are indicators that study virtual water flows, the energy return on investment (EROI) or a product life cycle.

Keywords

  • Virtual Water
  • Environmental Governance
  • Ecological Economic
  • Political Ecology
  • Ecological Distribution

These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

Download chapter PDF

References

  • Agarwal, B. (1994) A Field of One’s Own: Gender and Land Rights in South Asia (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Ali, S.H. (2006) “Gold Mining and the Golden Rule: A Challenge for Producers and Consumers in Developing Countries”, Journal of Cleaner Production 14(3–4): 455–462.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Aranda, D. (2010) Argentina Originaria: Genocidios, Saqueos y Resistencias (Buenos Aires: La Vaca).

    Google Scholar 

  • Asociación Civil Nodo Tau (2010) Asesinatos en Formosa: Indiferencia, Oídos Sordos y Represión, http://www.tau.org.ar/enredando2002–012/noticias_desarrollo.shtml?x=62518, date accessed 12 January 2015.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bebbington, A. (2012a) Social Conflict, Economic Development and the Extractive Industry: Evidence from South America (London and New York: Routledge).

    Google Scholar 

  • Bebbington, A. (2012b) “Underground Political Ecologies: The Second Annual Lecture of the Cultural and Political Ecology Specialty Group of the Association of American Geographers”, Geoforum 43(6): 1152–1162.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Binimelis, R., Pengue, W. and Monterroso, I. (2009) “Transgenic Treadmill: Responses to the Emergence and Spread of Glyphosate-Resistant Johnsongrass in Argentina”, Geoforum 40(4): 623–633.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Blacksmith Institute (2006) The World’s Worst Polluted Places. The Top Ten (New York: Blacksmith Institute).

    Google Scholar 

  • Bridge, G. (2004) “Contested Terrain: Mining and the Environment”, Annual Review of Environment and Resources 29(1): 205–259.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Bullard, R. (1990) Dumping in Dixie: Race, Class, and Environmental Quality (Boulder, CO: Westview Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Bunker, S. (2007) “The Poverty of Resource Extraction”, in A. Hornborg, McNeil, J.R. and Martinez-Alier, J. (eds), Rethinking Environmental History: Worldsystem History and Global Environmental Change (Lanham, MD: Altamira Press), 239–258.

    Google Scholar 

  • Conde, M. and Walter, M. (2014) “Commodity Frontiers”, in G. D’Alisa, F. Demaria and G. Kallis (eds), Degrowth. A Vocabulary for a New Era (New York and London: Routledge), 71–74.

    Google Scholar 

  • Douguet, J.M., O’Connor, M. and Noel, F. (2008) Systèmes de Valeur et Modes de Regulation: Vers Une Économie Politique Écologique (Paris: Cahiers du C3ED, UVSQ).

    Google Scholar 

  • EJOLT (2014) Environmental Justice Atlas, http://elatlas.org, date accessed 16 January 2015.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ericsson, M. and Larsson, V. (2013) “E&MJ’s Annual Survey of Global Mining Investment Project Survey 2013”, E&MJ Engineering and Mining Journal. http://pure.ltu.se/portal/files/100685420/EMJ_2013.pdf

  • EUROSTAT (2001) “Economy-Wide Material Flow Accounts and Derived Indicators. A Methodological Guide”, Luxembourg, Office for Official Publication of the European Communities. (Luxemburg: European Commission).

    Google Scholar 

  • Finer, M. and Orta-Martínez, M. (2010) “A Second Hydrocarbon Boom Threatens the Peruvian Amazon: Trends, Projections, and Policy Implications”, Environmental Research Letters 5(1): 014012.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Fischer-Kowalski, M. (1997) “Society’s Metabolism: On the Childhood and Adolescence of a Rising Conceptual Star”, in M. Redcliff and G. Woodgate (eds), The International Handbook of Environmental Sociology (Cheltenham: Edgard Elgar), 119–137.

    Google Scholar 

  • García-López, G.A. and Arizpe, N. (2010) “Participatory Processes in the Soy Conflicts in Paraguay and Argentina”, Ecological Economics 70(2): 196–206.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Gavaldà, M. (2013) Gas Amazónico. Los Pueblos Indígenas frente al Avance de las Fronteras Extractivas en Perú (Barcelona: Icaria).

    Google Scholar 

  • Gerber, J.F. (2011) “Conflicts over Industrial Tree Plantations in the South: Who, How and Why?”, Global Environmental Change 21(1): 165–176.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Gerber, J.F., Veuthey, S. and Martínez-Alier, J. (2009) “Linking Political Ecology with Ecological Economics in Tree Plantation Conflicts in Cameroon and Ecuador”, Ecological Economics 68(12): 2885–2889.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Giurco, D., Prior, T., Mudd, G., Mason, L. and Behrisch, J. (2010) Peak Minerals in Australia: A Review of Changing Impacts and Benefits (Sydney: University of Technology and Monash University).

    Google Scholar 

  • Gonzalez-Martinez, A.C. and Schandl, H. (2008) “The Biophysical Perspective of a Middle Income Economy: Material Flows in Mexico”, Ecological Economics 68(1–2): 317–327.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Government of Australia (2007) Managing Acid and Metalliferous Drainage. Leading practice sustainable development program for the mining industry. Department of Industry, Tourism and Resources. Canberra, Australia, http://www.industry.gov.au/resource/Documents/LPSDP/LPSDP-AcidHandbook.pdf

    Google Scholar 

  • GRR (2009) “Pueblos Fumigados: Informe sobre la Problemática del Uso de Plaguicidas en las Principales Provincias Sojeras de La Argentina”, Grupo de Reflexión Rural, http://www.grr.org.ar/trabajos/Pueblos_Fumigados__GRR_.pdf, date accessed 3 December 2014.

    Google Scholar 

  • Haberl, H. et al. (2007) “Quantifying and Mapping the Human Appropriation of Net Primary Production in Earth’s Terrestrial Ecosystems”, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 104(31): 12942–12947.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Henriquez, V. (2012) “Latin America to Receive 50% of Global Mining Investments Up to 2020”, Business News Americas. http://www.bnamericas.com/news/mining/latin-america-to-receive-half-of-global-mining-investment-until-2020-codelco

  • Hornborg, A. (1998) “Commentary: Towards an Ecological Theory of Unequal Exchange: Articulating World System Theory and Ecological Economics”, Ecological Economics 25(1): 127–136.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Hornborg, A. (2006) “Footprints in the Cotton Fields: The Industrial Revolution as Time–Space Appropriation and Environmental Load Displacement”, Ecological Economics 59(1): 74–81.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Hornborg, A. (2009) “Zero-Sum World: Challenges in Conceptualizing Environmental Load Displacement and Ecologically Unequal Exchange in the World-System”, International Journal of Comparative Sociology 50(3–4): 237–262.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • IUCN (2011) “Mining Threats on the Rise in World Heritage Sites”, International Union for Conservation of Nature. http://www.iucn.org/knowledge/news/?7742/Mining-threats-on-the-rise-in-World-Heritage-sites

  • Jorgenson, A.K. (2009) “The Sociology of Unequal Exchange in Ecological Context: A Panel Study of Lower-Income Countries, 1975–2000”, Sociological Forum 24(1): 22–46.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Kapp, K.W. (1950) The Social Costs of Private Enterprise (Cambridge: Harvard University Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Leff, E. (2003) “La Ecología Política en América Latina, un Campo en Construcción”, Polis 1(5): 1–15.

    Google Scholar 

  • M’Gonigle, R.M. (1999) “Ecological Economics and Political Ecology: Towards a Necessary Synthesis”, Ecological Economics 28: 11–26.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • MAGyP (2011) “Sistema Integrado de Información Agropecuaria”, Buenos Aires.

    Google Scholar 

  • Martínez-Alier, J. (1997) “Conflictos de Distribución Ecológica”, Revista Andina 29(1): 41–66.

    Google Scholar 

  • Martinez-Alier, J. (2001) “Mining Conflicts, Environmental Justice, and Valuation”, Journal of Hazardous Materials 86(1–3): 153–170.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Martinez-Alier, J. (2002) The Environmentalism of the Poor: A Study of Ecological Conflicts and Valuation (Delhi: Edward Elgar; Cheltenham: Oxford University Press).

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Martinez-Alier, J. (2009) “Social Metabolism, Ecological Distribution Conflicts, and Languages of Valuation”, Capitalism Nature Socialism 20(1): 58–87.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Martinez-Alier, J., Healy, H., Temper, L., Walter, M., Rodriguez-Labajos, B., Gerber, J. F. and Conde, M. (2011) “Between Science and Activism: Learning and Teaching Ecological Economics with Environmental Justice Organisations”, Local Environment 16(1): 17–36.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Martinez-Alier, J., Kallis, G., Veuthey, S., Walter, M. and Temper, L. (2010) “Social Metabolism, Ecological Distribution Conflicts, and Valuation Languages”, Ecological Economics 70(2): 153–158.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Martinez-Alier, J. and O’Connor, M. (1996) “Ecological and Economic Distribution Conflicts”, in R. Costanza (ed.), Getting down the Earth: Practical Applications of Ecological Economics (Washington DC: Island Press), 277–286.

    Google Scholar 

  • Moore, J.W. (2000) “Sugar and the Expansion of the Early Modern World-Economy: Commodity Frontiers, Ecological Transformation, and Industrialization”, Review 23(3): 409–433.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mudd, G.M. (2007a) “Global Trends in Gold Mining: Towards Quantifying Environmental and Resource Sustainability”, Resources Policy 32(1–2): 42–56.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Mudd, G.M. (2007b) “Gold Mining in Australia: Linking Historical Trends and Environmental and Resource Sustainability”, Environmental Science & Policy 10: 629–644.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Mudd, G.M. (2010) “The Environmental Sustainability of Mining in Australia: Key Mega-Trends and Looming Constraints”, Resources Policy 35(2): 98–115.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Muradian, R. and Martinez-Alier, J. (2001) “Trade and the Environment: From a ‘Southern’ Perspective”, Ecological Economics 36(2): 281–297.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Muradian, R., Walter, M. and Martinez-Alier, J. (2012) “Hegemonic Transitions and Global Shifts in Social Metabolism: Implications for Resource-Rich Countries. Introduction to the Special Section”, Global Environmental Change 22(3): 559–567.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Orta-Martínez, M. and Finer, M. (2010) “Oil Frontiers and Indigenous Resistance in the Peruvian Amazon”, Ecological Economics 70(2): 207–218.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • PEA (2010) “Plan Estratégico Agroalimentario y Agroindustrial Participativo y Federal 2010–2020”.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pengue, W. (2001) The Impact of Soybean Expansion in Argentina, Seedling, http://www.grain.org/es/article/entries/292-the-impact-of-soybean-expansion-in-argentina, date accessed 4 December 2014.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pengue, W. (2004) “Producción Agroexportadora e (In)seguridad Alimentaria: El Caso de la Soja en Argentina”, Revista Iberoamericana de Economía Ecológica 1: 46–55.

    Google Scholar 

  • Perez-Manrique, P.L., Brun, J., González-Martínez, A.C., Walter, M. and Martínez-Alier, J. (2013) “The Biophysical Performance of Argentina (1970–2009)”, Journal of Industrial Ecology 17(4): 590–604.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Pérez-Rincón, M.A. (2014) Conflictos Ambientales en Colombia: Inventario, Caracterización y Análisis (Cali: Universidad del Valle, CINARA, EJOLT).

    Google Scholar 

  • Prior, T., Mudd, G., Mason, L. and Behrisch, J. (2012) “Resource Depletion, Peak Minerals and the Implications for Sustainable Resource Management”, Global Environmental Change 22(3): 577–587.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Raikes, P., Friis Jensen, M. and Ponte, S. (2000) “Global Commodity Chain Analysis and the French Filière Approach: Comparison and Critique”, Economy and Society 29(3): 390–417.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Rice, J. (2007) “Ecological Unequal Exchange: International Trade and Uneven Utilization of Environmental Space in the World System”, Social Forces 85(3): 1369–1392.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Robbins, P. (2004) Political Ecology: A Critical Introduction (London: Blackwell Publishing).

    Google Scholar 

  • Roberts, J.T. and Parks, B.C. (2009) “Ecologically Unequal Exchange, Ecological Debt, and Climate Justice: The History and Implications of Three Related Ideas for a New Social Movement”, International Journal of Comparative Sociology 50(3–4): 385–409.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Russi, D., Gonzalez-Martinez, A.C., Silva-Macher, J.C., Giljum, S., Martinez-Alier, J. and Vallejo, M.C. (2008) “Material Flows in Latin America. A Comparative Analysis of Chile, Ecuador, Mexico, and Peru, 1980–2000”, Journal of Industrial Ecology 12(5–6): 704–720.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Samaniego, P., Vallejo, M.C. and Martinez-Alier, J. (2014) “Déficit Comercial y Déficit Físico en Sudamérica”, Documento de Trabajo, Proyectos CSO2010–21979 e ENGOV, Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals (ICTA), Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona, FLACSO Sede Ecuador.

    Google Scholar 

  • Santarcángelo, J. and Fal, J. (2009) “Production and Profitability in Livestock in Argentina. 1980–2006”, Mundo Agrario 10(19).

    Google Scholar 

  • Schoer, K., Giegrich, J., Kovanda, J., Lauwigi, C., Liebich, A. Buyny, S. and Matthias, J. (2012) Conversion of European Product Flows into Raw Material Equivalents (Heidelberg: Ifeu; Eurostat).

    Google Scholar 

  • Singh, S. J., Krausmann, F., Gingrich, S., Haberl, H., Erb, K.H., Lanz, P., Martinez-Alier, J. and Temper, L. (2012) “India’s Biophysical Economy, 1961–2008. Sustainability in a National and Global Context”, Ecological Economics 76–341(100): 60–69.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Sneddon, C., Howarth, R.B. and Norgaard, R.B. (2006) “Sustainable Development in a Post-Brundtland World”, Ecological Economics 57(2): 253–268.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • SNL Metals Economics Group (2013) “SNL Metals Economics Group’s Copper Study Reveals Lower Grades, Higher Costs for Copper Production in 2012”, PRWeb.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stern, D.I. (2004) “The Rise and Fall of the Environmental Kuznets Curve”, World Development 32(8): 1419–1439.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Svampa, M. (2012) “Consenso de los Commodities, Giro Ecoterritorial y Pensamiento Crítico en América Latina”, Observatorio Social de América Latina 32: 15–38.

    Google Scholar 

  • Teubal, M. (2006) “Expansión del Modelo Sojero en La Argentina. De la Producción de Alimentos a los Commodities”, Realidad Económica 220: 71–96.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tsoskounoglou, M., Ayerides, G. and Tritopoulou, E. (2008) “The End of Cheap Oil: Current Status and Prospects”, Energy Policy 36(10): 3797–3806.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • UMSEF (2007) Informe sobre Deforestación en Argentina (Buenos Aires).

    Google Scholar 

  • UNEP and CSIRO (2013) Recent Trends in Material Flows and Resource Productivity in Latin America (Nairobi). http://www.unep.org/dewa/portals/67/pdf/RecentTrendsLA.pdf

    Google Scholar 

  • Urkidi, L. and Walter, M. (2011) “Dimensions of Environmental Justice in Anti-Gold Mining Movements in Latin America”, Geoforum 42(6): 683–695.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Vallejo, M.C., Pérez-Rincón, M.A. and Martinez-Alier, J. (2011) “Metabolic Profile of the Colombian Economy from 1970 to 2007”, Journal of Industrial Ecology 15(2): 245–267.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Wallerstein, I. (1974) The Modern World-System, Vol I.: Capitalist Agriculture and the Origins of the European World-Economy in the Sixteenth Century (New York and London: Academic Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Walter, M. (2014) Political Ecology of Mining Conflicts in Latin America (Barcelona: Autonomous University of Barcelona).

    Google Scholar 

  • Walter, M., Brun, J., Perez-Manrique, P., Gonzalez-Martinez, A.C. and Martinez-Alier, J. (2013). Análisis de flujo de materiales de la economía Argentina (1970–2009). Tendencias y Conflictos extractivos. Ecología Política 45: 94–98.

    Google Scholar 

  • West, J. and Schandl, H. (2013) “Material Use and Material Efficiency in Latin America and the Caribbean”, Ecological Economics 94: 19–27.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors
  1. Joan Martinez-Alier
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Mariana Walter
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. political ecologist and assistant professor of Brazilian Studies and Human Ecology, political scientist and Associate Professor of Political Science, CEDLA, UvA, The Netherlands

    Fábio de Castro & Barbara Hogenboom & 

  2. historian and director of CEDLA, and professor of Latin American Studies, UvA, The Netherlands

    Michiel Baud

Rights and permissions

This chapter is published under an open access license. Please check the 'Copyright Information' section either on this page or in the PDF for details of this license and what re-use is permitted. If your intended use exceeds what is permitted by the license or if you are unable to locate the licence and re-use information, please contact the Rights and Permissions team.

Copyright information

© 2016 Joan Martinez-Alier and Mariana Walter

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Martinez-Alier, J., Walter, M. (2016). Social Metabolism and Conflicts over Extractivism. In: de Castro, F., Hogenboom, B., Baud, M. (eds) Environmental Governance in Latin America. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-50572-9_3

Download citation

We’re sorry, something doesn't seem to be working properly.

Please try refreshing the page. If that doesn't work, please contact support so we can address the problem.