Antonio Augusto Rossotto Ioris

It is well established within the social sciences that each stage of research, from planning to publication, is affected by the researcher’s standpoint (Walter, 2019). Across the social sciences, there has been a tendency to prioritize knowledge (epistemes), frameworks, and research stemming from the Global North, and to overlook Southern and Indigenous knowledge, frameworks, and research. Indigenous Standpoint Theory and other critical theories seek to counter and circumnavigate this trend by uplifting knowledge and paradigms outside the “Northern Canon”.This case study explores the use of Indigenous Standpoint Theory by two Aboriginal Australian social scientists, one Worimi and the other Palawa, with examples of research drawing from the Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children (LSIC)—Footprints in Time. Specifically, we focus on a research project that investigates the sharing of Indigenous culture between Indigenous fathers and their children, and how this contributes to their children growing up strong. We argue that using Indigenous Standpoint Theory in Indigenous-related research is vital because of the ongoing tensions between the worldviews of Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in Anglo-colonized nations like Australia.

Water and sanitation remains a very challenging and contested socio-ecological terrain. Around the world, the record of success is uneven, while new problems continue to emerge associated, for instance, with chaotic urbanization, lack of public investment and climate change. The pattern of responses is complex, ranging from local initiatives and national policies to the 2030 Agenda, which aims for integration in public policies for cities at the transition to sustainability. Its topic Water and sanitation: privatization of the services and environmental injustice deals with the goal included in the SDG 6—Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all—which specifically focuses on access to drinking water and sanitation services. More than that, it creates a space for reflection and debate, which is also the main goal of this Research Topic. Notably the configuration and function of large cities reflect the incessant and dependent interlinkages between local, national, and international spheres of hydro-social interaction. The “urban” is a specific arena of dispute, creativity and confrontation (de Castro et al., 2021). The provision of sewage collection, disposal, and treatment services and the appropriation of water generate and intensify conflicts, which are all socio-spatial phenomena that require appropriate theorization. The comprehension of these different aspects requires a proper understanding of which can be called “distributive environmental conflicts,” in the case of access to water, and “spatial environmental conflicts,” when considering the sewage pollution (Zhouri and Laschefski, 2010). Consequently, the complexity …

The case study discusses important ethical, methodological and interpretative questions that should be considered when doing participatory research involving marginalised social groups and, in particular, indigenous peoples. The condition and the experience of indigenous peoples–as the Guarani-Kaiowa in Brazil, who have suffered the terrible consequences of land grabbing and structural racism–have major consequences for the preparation and implementation of research projects. The methodological approach employed to do research with and for indigenous peoples is contingent and combined ethnography, which integrates opportunities to accumulate information, learn together and make sense of deeply politicised processes that produce lived and contested spaces. This is a qualitative research strategy that aimed at knowing the world from a standpoint of deeply politicised socio-spatial relations and is predicated upon decolonisation and the pursuit of restoration and justice in the Global North and in the Global South. The whole process is iterative and non-linear, which means that things are recorded as they are observed during the engagement with the indigenous communities, but further participation benefits from the cumulative joint learning and leads to revisiting and rethinking what is being interpreted. A contingent and combined ethnography tries to relate, working with indigenous participants and taking interpretation as translation, the more immediate experiences with the totality of space, time and politics. It is an engaged, committed ethnography that questions conventional academic research, typically forged through power …

We want to start this commentary with a praise for our outgoing Editor-in-chief Dr Catherine Locke. Catherine stepped in and took on stewardship of Progress in Development Studies (PIDS) at a time of great uncertainty for the journal. She devoted time and energy far beyond the call of duty to secure its survival and redefine its strategic direction. We have all worked closely with Catherine over the past years and witnessed her unwavering devotion to the journal, emerging in equal parts from a deepfelt responsibility for PIDS’future and admirable commitment to the field of Development Studies. As well as competently handling submissions and publication proposals, Catherine has been a stout and vocal supporter of early career researchers and authors from all over the world with a particular focus on building an inclusive journal. Catherine now passes the torch on to us, an editorial team comprising Antonio AR Ioris …

This article is focused on the politics of indigeneity, which is an increasingly important concept and a central area of dispute in a globalised world. Indigeneity encapsulates the friction between ethnicity and class identities, which cannot be understood without a full consideration of differences and relationships between landowners, other economic sectors, non-indigenous workers and indigenous people. The text specifically deals with the circumstances of Paraguay, whose process of nation building is directly related to longitudinal attacks on its indigenous peoples and the unresolved problems of land, labour and rights. The case study investigates the long-term tendencies of Paraguayan society, in particular, the ongoing expansion of agribusiness and land grabbing in the northeast of the country that tragically affect the Paĩ Tavyterã indigenous people. The discussion is based on qualitative, engaged research …

This article discusses some of the long-term tendencies of the Paraguayan political economy, focusing, in particular, on impacts on indigenous peoples and, because of the ongoing agribusiness expansion in the northeast of the country, on the Paĩ Tavyterã nation. This analysis is warranted because of the growing recognition of the importance of land-related disputes affecting indigenous peoples, particularly in countries such as Paraguay that rely heavily on agribusiness exports and on the exploitation of natural resources. It is based on more than six years of research dedicated to the land struggles of the Paĩ Tavyterã (and members of the same ethnic group in Brazil, called Guarani-Kaiowa). Instead of a comparative study, this is a relational storytelling text that draws insights from various actors, communities and situations that were obtained through a qualitative and participative methodology, involving indigenous communities as co-participants and co-investigators in the study. Empirical results demonstrate that, despite the fact that Paraguay is a major exporter of agribusiness commodities the accumulation of multiple forms of subtraction is a prevailing geographical force. The reaction of indigenous peoples is in the form of anti-subtraction. The main implication of this research is that the process of decolonisation is, first and foremost, an anti-subtraction movement that aims to revert the deficit caused by the systemic subtraction of socio-economic and socio-ecological opportunities.

O livro abrange algumas das mais relevantes e recentes reflexões acadêmicas sobre o entrecruzamento entre gênero e etnia que afeta as Guarani e Kaiowá no sul do Mato Grosso do Sul. Além disso, aponta para as novas demandas teóricas e analíticas necessárias para dar conta de uma realidade socioespacial profundamente injusta, instável e desafiadora. A obra contém, de forma especial, a contribuição de autoras indígenas e não indígenas, com formação acadêmica particularmente em geografia, história e antropologia em diferentes estágios da sua carreira universitária, e com múltiplas perspectivas sobre a problemática e as respostas criativas da mobilização Guarani e Kaiowá. É resultado de uma ampla rede de colaboração entre investigadoras/es de importantes centros de pesquisa, intensamente conectada com outras iniciativas científicas semelhantes ao redor do mundo. O diálogo entre as/os autoras/es cobre uma ampla gama de temas, sendo que um elemento que se sobressai–independentemente da área de conhecimento e da temática–é o espaço. Outro aspecto importante do texto coletivo é a promoção de temáticas, diálogos e narrativas a partir de dentro do processo de violência, racismo, machismo, preconceito e marginalização socioespacial. O formato de livro permitiu a inclusão de resultados de monografias, dissertações e teses (capítulo ou partes de capítulos), com estímulo aos modos de existir e como eles levam, simultaneamente, à produção de territórios. O livro não apenas descreve a realidade social, mas contribui para recriá-la e contribui como antecipação a outras condições desejadas, mesmo que …

Las fallas de la gestión de recursos hídricos en la Bajada Fluminense han representado una constante fuente de problemas para los habitantes locales, principalmente en forma de inundaciones, contaminación y servicios públicos deficientes. Históricamente, tal situación ha suscitado diversas iniciativas gubernamentales, sin que se haya avanzado de manera significativaen la resolución de los problemas. La problemática del agua es parte de un legado histórico y político de discriminación, abandono y explotación que se refleja en la construcción, simbólica y material, de un espacio marginalizado y de persistente marginalización. El agua sirve, en este trabajo, como punto de entrada para discutir cuestiones de inserción social, eficacia de políticas públicas y compromisos gubernamentales.

The purpose of this article is to relate the very important question of the autonomy of indigenous peoples to freely make decisions about their life with the notion of indigeneity, reconceptualised as a socially constructed and deeply contested resource. Resources are more than mere static assets or quantities of matter waiting to be measured, explored or protected. Something becomes a resource through joint processes of quantification, valuation, and normalisation. Along these lines, indigeneity is not just the ascertainment of something or someone in relation to ‘somewhat else’, but a nexus of indigenous peoples’ self-realisation and political intervention. To be indigenous is to exist politically in space and in relation to antagonist forces and processes that constantly downgrade their ethnic and social condition. Indigeneity is, thus, a resource that presupposes the value and the fight for their rights and for other (so-called) indigenous resources found in their lands. The main contribution here is the claim that indigeneity is a ground-breaking resource and a reaction formulated in the interstices of the old and new machineries of market-oriented coloniality. Indigeneity is reinterpreted as a special, highly politicised resource that directly and indirectly opposes processes of world grabbing and the appropriation of other territorialised resources from indigenous areas. It is concluded that indigeneity, as a resourceful resource, has become a key factor in the process of external and internal recognition, which galvanises political mobilisation and instigates novel forms of interaction. What makes indigenous peoples more and more unique is also what makes …

The article deals with the ontological configuration and political appropriation of difference in modern, capitalist societies. Against fragmented accounts of difference, it is examined the evolution from situations of wide socio-spatial diversity to the gradual instrumentalisation and selective hierarchisation of those elements of difference that can be inserted in market-based relations, whilst the majority of differences are ignored and disregarded. The instrumentalisation of difference under capitalism – the reduction of extended socio-spatial difference to the interests and priorities of the stronger segments of society who emphasise their distinctive features in the attempt to exert power and control over those considered inferior and subordinate – has more than just an impact on social or interpersonal relations but constitutes an active worldmaking force that operates, primarily, via the promotion of indifference. The analysis …

La diferencia no es un epifenómeno de las relaciones socioespaciales, sino un verdadero motor de la construcción del mundo, ya que es el manejo de la diferencia lo que abre el camino a interacciones específicas que terminan configurando la sociedad y, en última instancia, el espacio. No hay sólo ‘un mundo de diferencias’, sino un mundo por y fuera de las diferencias. Este artículo ofrece un análisis neohegeliano de la base espacial de las diferencias político-económicas y étnico-sociales, utilizando el ejemplo llamativo de la violencia antidiferencial sufrida por los pueblos indígenas bajo la hegemonía del capitalismo rentista-financiero. Hay dos pilares principales de la diferencia socioespacial, la etnicidad y la clase, que co-determinan y eventualmente dan como resultado diferencias híbridas de etnoclase experimentadas por todas las personas y de acuerdo con sus circunstancias específicas y generales. La trayectoria socioespacial de la nación indígena Guaraní-Kaiowá, en el centro de Brasil, es emblemática de la base dialéctica de las diferencias etnoclasistas y también del potencial transformador de la diferencia.

Although genocide is commonly used today to describe the dramatic challenges indigenous peoples face worldwide, the significance of the Guarani-Kaiowa genocidal experience is not casual and cannot be merely sloganized. The indigenous genocide unfolding in the Brazilian State of Mato Grosso do Sul -"Kaiowcide"- is not just a case of hyperbolic violence or widespread murdering, but it is something qualitatively different from other serious crimes committed against marginalised communities. Kaiowcide is the reincarnation of old genocidal practices of agrarian capitalism employed to extend and unify the national territory. In other words, Kaiowcide has become a necessity of mainstream development, whilst the sanctity of regional economic growth and private rural property are excuses invoked to justify the genocidal trail. The phenomenon combines strategies and procedures based on the competition and …

The article discusses the political‐economy of agribusiness, making use of the category of rent that is considered as a proportion of exchange value diverted from production for the payment to the landowners and, crucially, its class‐based allies. Rent is therefore more than just the extraction of value from the use of land, but there is a wider, deeply politicised capture of value from the network of relations that maintain land in production. Agribusiness rent primarily derives from the appropriation of land through the formation of a powerful network involving ‘state‐landowners‐private agroindustrial sector’, and this network provides the necessary conditions for the extraction of rent and the accumulation of capital.

El Derecho al Agua como Política Pública: una Exploración Teórica y Empírica -The Right to Water as Public Policy: a Theoretical and Empirical Exploration" - ePrints - Newcastle University Newcastle University Toggle Main Menu Toggle Search Home Browse Latest Policies About Home Browse Latest Policies About Open Access padlock ePrints Browse by author El Derecho al Agua como Política Pública: una Exploración Teórica y Empírica -The Right to Water as Public Policy: a Theoretical and Empirical Exploration" Lookup NU author(s): Emeritus Professor Esteban CastroORCiD Downloads Full text for this publication is not currently held within this repository. Alternative links are provided below where available. Publication metadata Editor(s): Castro JE, Heller L, de Morais MP, Caldera A Publication type: Edited Book Publication status: Published Series Title: Year: 2023 Number of Pages: 407 Print publication …

High-quality academic publishing is built on rigorous peer review. Societies was able to uphold its high standards for published papers due to the outstanding efforts of our reviewers. Thanks to the efforts of our reviewers in 2022, the median time to first decision was 27 days and the median time to publication was 60 days. Regardless of whether the articles they examined were ultimately published, the editors would like to express their appreciation and thank the following reviewers for the time and dedication that they have shown Societies:

This paper presents an analysis of the politico-economic and ethnic-social basis of difference, paying special attention to the anti-difference violence suffered by indigenous peoples and the concrete experience of the Gurani-Kaiowa in Brazil. Ethnic-social differences and commonalities are here examined through a social sciences reinterpretation of Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit. In this magistral book, Hegel problematises and gradually resolves many questions about human perception, the shortcomings of reason, and the incremental evolution of reason that can only happen through mediation and interaction. The unique features of each social group can consequently expand into ethnoclass commonalities shared with other, unique populations. That is particularly relevant to understand the many pressures to reduce the Guarani-Kaiowa to an indeterminate proletarian condition (generic members of the …

The article investigates how racist trends have permeated Brazilian history and geography. It discusses the persistence of racism and indifference in the early post-independence and republic periods. Past relations continued to systematically impact the present in an always unfinished process of nation-building based on spurious treatments of socio-spatial differences. The discussion makes use of emblematic literature books and controversial interpretations of progress and national identity. One of the most relevant examples of the contested basis of national development, examined in the second part of the text, is the trajectory of indigenous peoples. The main reference is the Guarani-Kaiowa indigenous nation, which has been relentlessly impacted by an aggressive instrumentalisation of difference through the indifference of an agribusiness-based regional society. Their contemporary experience exposes …

The indigenous genocide unfolding in the Brazilian State of Mato Grosso do Sul–described here as Kaiowcide–is not just a case of hyperbolic violence, but it is something qualitatively different from other serious crimes committed against marginalised, subaltern communities in the rest of the country. Kaiowcide is the reincarnation of old genocidal practices of agrarian capitalism that once again target the Guarani-Kaiowa indigenous people because of their land-based ethnopolitical demands. The present analysis is based on a novel interpretation of indigenous genocides through the nexus between genocide-geocide-massacre. Considering that politico-spatial nexus, Kaiowcide combines strategies and procedures based on the competition and opposition between groups of people who dispute the relatively scarce social opportunities of an agribusiness-based economy that characterises the region.

Frontier-making has always been fundamental for the circulation and accumulation of capital. The perennity of frontier-making is not only due to the demand for minerals, land or other resources, or because frontiers represent fresh market opportunities, but crucially because it operates as compensation for the saturation of the existing capitalist relations in core areas. At the frontier, the conventional sequence of time and space is suspended and reconfigured, allowing room for the decompression of tensions and contradictions. Consequently, spatial frontiers function as a mirror, where the most explicit features of capitalism are vividly exposed. This article examines the meaning and immanence of spatial frontiers, considering them as a laboratory of historical and geographical agency. It entails a reflection upon the necessity, the configuration and the contestation of spatial frontiers, paying particular attention to the …

La diferencia no es un epifenómeno de las relaciones socioespaciales, sino un verdadero motor de la construcción del mundo, ya que es el manejo de la diferencia lo que abre el camino a interacciones específicas que terminan configurando la sociedad y, en última instancia, el espacio. No hay sólo ‘un mundo de diferencias’, sino un mundo por y fuera de las diferencias. Este artículo ofrece un análisis neohegeliano de la base espacial de las diferencias político-económicas y étnico-sociales, utilizando el ejemplo llamativo de la violencia antidiferencial sufrida por los pueblos indígenas bajo la hegemonía del capitalismo rentista-financiero. Hay dos pilares principales de la diferencia socioespacial, la etnicidad y la clase, que co-determinan y eventualmente dan como resultado diferencias híbridas de etnoclase experimentadas por todas las personas y de acuerdo con sus circunstancias específicas y generales. La trayectoria socioespacial de la nación indígena Guaraní-Kaiowá, en el centro de Brasil, es emblemática de la base dialéctica de las diferencias etnoclasistas y también del potencial transformador de la diferencia.

It is still largely ignored that Hegelian dialect can be of great assistance to comprehend the intricacies of the production, experience, and contestation of space. Hegelian philosophy can significantly help to enrich geographical scholarship, although Hegel‐the‐geographer is yet to be discovered and properly recognised. Considering the metabolism of reason, the articulation between the particular and the universal, the externalisation and supersession of objectified consciousness, and the function of otherness in the production of space, among other insights of great socio‐spatial relevance, this article offers a comparative analysis between Hegel's minor geography (the more explicit and immediate considerations of space, spatial dimensions, and geometry) and the more substantial, major geography, which is immanent in the main body of his philosophical system. The most remarkable geographical …

A implantação do maior empreendimento hídrico brasileiro, o Projeto de Integração do rio São Francisco (PISF), responsável por transpor as águas do rio para o semiárido nordestino, causou diferentes efeitos na região e ocasionou a desterritorialização de diversas famílias. Parte dessas foram reterritorializadas nas 18 vilas rurais espalhadas ao longo do projeto, onde cerca de 845 famílias foram reassentadas. Neste contexto, a pesquisa conduzida na vila rural Lafayette, em Monteiro/PB, tem por objetivo analisar o processo de reterritorialização dos atores atingidos e suas estratégias de luta para o acesso à água. Para tanto, adotamos a abordagem qualitativa e pesquisa etnográfica, mediante a utilização de procedimentos como a entrevista de história oral com atores reassentados na vila, entrevistas semiestruturadas com atores institucionais, além da coleta de documentos, fotografias e observações registradas no diário de campo. Os resultados demonstram as dificuldades das famílias no processo de reterritorialização na vila, a emergência dos conflitos por água, além de apreender as diferentes estratégias de luta dos atores atingidos para obterem acesso à água para o consumo humano. Desse modo, o estudo contribui para a problematização em torno dos atingidos pelo empreendimento e do acesso à água frente a um grande projeto que tem como mote a distribuição da água, contudo, as vidas das famílias atingidas continuam secas.

A produção de perícias judiciais, especificamente no caso dos laudos antropológicos, é uma atividade realizada com o concurso e esforço de muitas pessoas e de diversos saberes. Uma perícia antropológica é solicitada pela autoridade judiciária quando é imperioso o conhecimento pormenorizado de certos fatos sociais específicos, notadamente em razão das complexidades ontológicas, histórico-dialéticas e conjunturais que constituem a realidade factual e simbólica representadas por esses fatos e os fenômenos socioculturais que os determinam. Assim, para que possam ser compreendidos, ou mais bem interpretados, tais fatos reclamam, como assevera Maia (2018 apud CRUZ, 2018, p. 1)“[…] um conhecimento especializado do saber antropológico, em estudo que evidencie um fazer antropológico, relatado os achados de um modo que resulte a demonstração da reconstrução do mundo social do grupo pesquisado […]”, obviamente, prossegue Maia, levando em consideração a perspectiva do grupo no que tange às referências de “sua cosmovisão, suas crenças, seus costumes, seus hábitos, suas práticas, seus valores, sua interação com o meio ambiente, suas interações sociais recíprocas, suas ordens internas, a organização grupal, fatores que geram concepção de pertencimento, entre outros”. Tecnicamente, uma perícia tem como conceituação normativa o disposto no Código de Processo Civil (CPC). Segundo o referido Diploma Legal, perícia constitui-se o trabalho de pesquisa realizado no qual são privilegiadas a análise e a verificação a respeito da veracidade ou da realidade de determinados fatos, quando os elementos …

The genocideGenocideof indigenous peoplesIndigenous peoples is one of the most evident attributes of the ever-expanding agribusinessAgribusiness, as it releases landLand, labourLabour and resources then used for the production of commoditiesCommodities and the circulation of capitalCapital (capitalism). Contemporary genocidesGenocide actualise and maintain processes characterised by intense violenceViolence, given that the underlying logic of agribusinessAgribusiness seems to be ‘let’s end everything before everything ends’. The genocidal basis of colonisationColonialism (colonisation) continues, therefore, to evolve in order to meet the present-day needs of an agri-foodAgri-food sector dominated by corporationsCorporations, landLand speculators and banks (rentier capitalCapital (capitalism)).

Indigenous schools are spaces for the convergence of different worldviews and to demonstrate how the creativity of each ethnic group challenges exogenous and established concepts and methodologies. The present article examines main trends and pending gaps related to indigenous education in Brazil between the years 2007 and 2019. Issues such as the characterisation of indigenous schools, teachers and students are analysed, with a focus on the evolution of the number of students enrolled, infrastructure, language and pedagogic approaches. The analysis is focused on the states of Mato Grosso do Sul, which has a large indigenous population and an economy based on export-oriented agribusiness, and Sao Paulo, the main economic, demographic and political centre of Brazil with a much smaller indigenous population. The results demonstrate concrete improvements, especially the expansion of the …

“Nunca acaba a dor de perder um filho, e eu perdi três”, lamenta Doraci Claudio, uma senhora Kaiowá que, em maio de 2014, saiu de casa para encontrar seus dois filhos mortos à beira da estrada, na Reserva Indígena de Dourados. Seis anos antes, seu outro filho havia sido encontrado sem vida em local próximo dali, pelas mesmas circunstâncias. É preciso algum preparo para ouvir, de uma vez, todo o depoimento:

The Second Edition of this book is completely revised and updated throughout providing an overview of current challenges faced within the area of Agri-food in relation to policymaking, ecological conservation and socio-environmental justice. Including a range of new chapters, the book explores some of the conceptual and analytical gaps that are presented by current approaches to this topic. The series of interconnected chapters offers a critical reinterpretation of the tensions associated with the failures of mainstream regulatory regimes, land and resource grabbing, and the impacts of global agri-food chains at local, regional and inter-sectoral scales. The book also examines past legacies and emerging challenges associated with agriculture modernisation, politico-spatial disputes, climate change, social movements, gender, ethnicity and education. It likewise addresses the transformative potential of different combinations of biophysical, socio-technical and socio-spatial practices of food sovereignty.

O livro abrange algumas das mais relevantes reflexões acadêmicas sobre a trajetória dos Guarani e Kaiowá no sul do Mato Grosso do Sul produzidas nos últimos anos e, além disso, aponta para as novas demandas teóricas e analíticas necessárias para dar conta de uma realidade socioespacial profundamente injusta e instável. A obra contém contribuição de autoras (es) indígenas e não indígenas, com formação acadêmica particularmente em geografia, história e antropologia em diferentes estágios da sua carreira universitária, e com múltiplas perspectivas sobre a problemática e as respostas criativas do movimento Guarani e Kaiowá. É resultado de uma ampla rede de colaboração entre investigadoras (es) de importantes centros de pesquisa no Brasil e no exterior, intensamente conectada com outras iniciativas científicas semelhantes ao redor do mundo. O diálogo entre as (os) autoras (es) cobre uma ampla gama de temas, sendo que um elemento que se sobressai—independentemente da área de conhecimento e da temática—é o espaço. Outro aspecto importante do texto coletivo é a participação de pesquisadoras (es) indígenas, com a promoção de temáticas, diálogos e narrativas a partir de dentro do processo de violência, racismo e marginalização socioespacial. O formato de livro permitiu a inclusão de resultados de dissertações e teses (capítulos ou partes de capítulos), com estímulo, em especial, aos modos de existir e como eles se fazem, simultaneamente, a produção de territórios. As análises gravitam em torno da categoria tekoha, em sua variedade de formas de expressão, permitindo conjugar a produção do tempo e …

The article seeks to discuss the political perspective of indigenous peoples in their effort to resist aggression and reclaim back land and opportunities lost to development. The very general and the highly specific condition of indigenous groups in today’s market-based globalization is directly connected with the growing interest of social scientists in the ontological turn, which entails critical interrogations of reductionist assumptions about ‘what exists’ and novel ways of questioning contested realities. The ontological turn is a re-evaluation of Western-centric conceptualisations of the world and an attempt to move beyond essentialist positions. The flourishing debate on political ontology informs an examination of the tragic socio-spatial experience of the Guarani-Kaiowa of South America, a relatively large indigenous people who had more than 99% of their land grabbed and struggle to resist genocidal pressures and …

A condição social e a agência política dos povos indígenas, apesar de muitas vezes serem consideradas obsoletas e redundantes, constituem prova inequívoca de que o “projeto moderno ocidental”(VILLALBA, 2013), também chamado de “Oeste global”[global West](STENGERS, 2018), não corresponde às demandas e necessidades de grandes seções da população mundial. Não obstante potente impulso homogeneizador, a modernidade ocidental é um processo sócio-político repleto de antinomias. Em que pese sua hegemonia política e econômica, o modelo ocidental de modernização não somente se mostra incapaz de apagar diferenças sociais e espaciais historicamente estabelecidas, mas continua a depender e a alimentar disparidades entre classes, grupos e lugares. A luta dos grupos indígenas por sobrevivência e por reconhecimento (o que necessariamente implica em redistribuição) expõe claramente as contradições e intolerâncias da ordem globalizada contemporânea. As centenas de povos indígenas ao redor do planeta—que constituem cerca de 10% da população mundial (ONU, 2009)—persistem na tentativa de resistir a múltiplas agressões e no intento de manter práticas socioespaciais distintas. Derrogatoriamente descritos como índios no continente americano, ou aborígines na Austrália e em outros locais (do latim ab origine, que significa “desde o início”, isto é, primitivo), entre muitos outros termos pejorativos, as circunstâncias individuais de cada povo indígena representam um contraponto importante a tendências ideológicas e socioeconômicas dominantes.

Este livro é um convite para caminharmos, pensarmos e sonharmos juntos com indivíduos e comunidades Guarani e Kaiowá, que têm tanto para nos contar e ensinar. São 23 relatos pessoais, registrados incialmente em língua guarani, de quem vive e sofre diariamente uma verdadeira geografia do absurdo: ser refugiado em sua própria terra. Em outras palavras, terem sido forçados a ocupar apenas uma ínfima fração do seu mundo ancestral, que lhes foi tomado de forma ilegal, violenta e desonesta pelo processo de ocupação fundiária e por um desenvolvimento regional cada vez mais baseado na farsa do agronegócio e na privatização perversa de quase tudo. Mas os Guarani e Kaiowá não têm assistido passivamente a tanto contrassenso. Pelo contrário, são homens e mulheres que fazem da existência atos de resistência, vida e luta contra a destruição, as injustiças acumuladas e a morte quase total da terra, das plantas, dos bichos, dos rios e de gente indígena submetida a um verdadeiro genocídio contemporâneo. Os relatos nos ajudam a compreender o paradoxo de se enfrentar uma violência genocida explícita, acontecendo ao vivo e a cores, mas inexplicavelmente tolerada pelo restante da sociedade e agravada pela inépcia, ou mesmo conivência, do Estado. A iniciativa deste livro começou na universidade, não como pesquisa convencional e, sim, como um pedido, muito humilde, para que mentes e vozes indígenas ajudassem professores e alunos a melhor compreenderem um país que igualmente exclui a maioria da sua população, indígena e não-indígena. Quando se percebe que teorias e modelos científicos não dão …

A produção agroalimentar e o desenvolvimento agrário constituem algumas das áreas mais desafiadoras da formulação de políticas públicas, conservação socioecológica e justiça socioambiental na atualidade (Ioris e Fernandes, 2022). Não foi por acaso que muitos autores têm associado a crise financeira de 2008 à crescente crise agroalimentar global. As principais deficiências do sistema alimentar hegemônico, claramente dominado pelo agronegócio e pelo setor financeiro, tornam cada vez mais evidentes, incluindo inadequações tecnológicas, incertezas sobre o abastecimento, assimetrias de poder e desigualdades entre grupos de produtores e diferentes segmentos da sociedade. Pode-se dizer, sem exagero, que os problemas agroalimentares refletem o mal-estar da economia globalizada (considerando formas de alienação política, econômica e cultural). Nas palavras do influente estudioso indo-americano Raj Patel, o sistema alimentar é um campo de batalha, embora poucos percebam quantas baixas ocorrem. Apesar da relevância crescente dessas questões, o resultado mais visível é uma espécie de impasse: os problemas agroalimentares são reconhecidos, continuam no topo da agenda socioeconômica e ambiental, mas é difícil ver de onde viriam respostas e mudanças significativas. A maioria das abordagens ainda reflete as influências de um paradigma produtivista (e fortemente carbonizado), que é basicamente uma tentativa de produzir de forma ilimitada e de estandardizar o que se pode encontrar nas prateleiras dos supermercados. Produção, distribuição e consumo têm sido tratados de forma burocrática e abstrata …

The implementation of the largest Brazilian hydrological project, the Projeto de Integração do rio São Francisco - PISF (water resources project implemented by the federal government in the Brazilian Northeast), responsible for transfering the river's waters into the semi-arid Northeast region of Brazil, had different effects in the region and caused the deterritorialization of several families. A portion of these families were reterritorialized into the 18 rural villages scattered throughout the project, where approximately 845 families were resettled. In this context, the research conducted in the rural village of Lafayette, in Monteiro/PB, aims to analyze the process of reterritorialization of the affected actors and their strategies to fight for access to water. For this purpose, we adopted a qualitative approach and ethnographic research, using procedures such as oral history interviews with actors resettled in the village, semi …

Frontiers of national development and agricultural expansion constitute spaces of intense interaction, disputes and contestation. The Brazilian economy continues to largely rely on the opening of agribusiness frontiers in the west of country and, similar to what happened in the past, this is a phenomenon shaped by acute racism and discrimination against the Indigenous population. This article is focused on the emblematic experienced by the Guarani-Kaiowa on the border between Brazil and Paraguay. Their unique socio-spatial trajectory is analysed, making use of empirical results and regular visits to Indigenous communities. To understand this highly variegated geographical terrain, a new spatial typology is introduced. One of the key findings of the research is the latent agency by the Guarani-Kaiowa, which emerges from attachments to places, heritages and socio-ecological practices that led to an ability to take …

Geography has reached its golden age at the end of this century, because ‘geographicity’ imposes itself as a historical condition, insofar as nothing considered essential today is done in the world that can avoid the knowledge of what the Territory is. The Territory is the place where all actions, all passions, all powers, all strengths, all weaknesses merge, that is, where the history of man is fully realised from the manifestations of his existence. Geography becomes that discipline that is more capable of showing the dramas of the world, of the nation, of the place

Kaiowcide: Living through the Guarani-Kaiowa Genocide is an analysis of the genocidal violence perpetrated against indigenous peoples in Brazil and towards the Guarani-Kaiowa. The ongoing indigenous genocide is defined as “Kaiowcide,” in place since the 1970s, when the Guarani-Kaiowa mobilized a reaction to land grabbing and oppression in the final years of the military dictatorship. The book is based on years of research on the agribusiness frontiers, on the indigenous geography of the Guarani-Kaiowa, and on sustained engagement with indigenous communities. Instead of merely describing the genocidal tragedy, the focus is on the life through genocide and trying to collectively go beyond it. One of the main contributions is to provide a robust interpretative analysis of the causes and the ramifications of the genocidal experience lived by the Guarani-Kaiowa. Rather than focusing on formalist notions of “direct intent” by settlers and governments, as a prerequisite for the tagging as genocide, this book emphasizes the destructive potential of the actors actively involved in agrarian capitalist transformations promoted by the national state in socio-economic frontiers.

The introductory chapter reviews the meaning and fundamental features of the advance of development, what is later detailed and exemplified in the other parts of the book. The chapter presents the rationale, the justification and the structure of the study and explains that its main purpose is to examine the contested nexus between development goals and environmental problems. Environment-development dilemmas are actually much broader and more complicated than suggested by simplistic narratives of progress and conservation. The main attention of the first chapter is on the socio-cultural construction of development frontiers as spaces of opportunity and likely rewards for those who persevere helps to maintain social inequalities. Interrogating the frontier is a formidable challenge for critical, left-wing thinking (primarily concentrated on justice and equality), considering that frontier making is by …

The environment–development nexus has long been of interest to geographers, especially political ecologists. This entry addresses a series of themes at the core of geographical scholarship on environment and development, including the role of natural resource mobilization in development; the social and ecological contradictions of traditional, resource‐intensive development; the rise of the sustainable development paradigm; the turn to “bottom‐up” development policies; “livelihoods” as a central analytical category in research; and the relevance of social and environmental difference in environment and development dynamics. The entry concludes by discussing two topics that are likely to attract greater scholarly attention in upcoming years: corporate‐led development and degrowth.

Over the past three decades, a series of global initiatives have promoted changes in water governance adopted by many countries and, in Brazil, resulted in the approval of the Water Resources National Policy Act (Law 9433/1997). Since the passing of this law, tangible progress has been made, but there is a lack of effective implementation, particularly in the Amazon Hydrographic Region. This chapter’s main objective is to evaluate water governance in this region and the identity and construction of the hydrosocial territory, specially in the Teles Pires River Basin (TPRB) in Mato Grosso State. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with members of the three River Basin Committees installed in the TPRB; meetings were observed and documents were analysed. The governance model is centralised by the government and water management is partially implemented. This governance, together with …

A floresta amazônica chegou ao ano de 2020 marcada pela tragédia. Desde o malfadado" dia do fogo"(10 de agosto de 2019), apresentado de forma bizarra como manifestação de apoio a um presidente descompromissado com a preservação desse bioma, milhares de hectares de mata queimaram continuamente, dia após dia. As consequências ainda estão se fazendo sentir. As perdas em biodiversidade são difíceis de calcular, mas certamente afetam os ecossistemas e os meios de vida das populações rurais e ribeirinhas. Os impactos sociais e ambientais são denunciados diuturnamente em todo o mundo, de maneira inútil. A sociedade brasileira manteve-se (não apenas sobre esse tema) estranhamente impassível, ainda confusa e dividida desde a última campanha eleitoral dominada por desinformação e irracionalidade. Já a opinião pública internacional, movida pelo volume de informações que circulou nos veículos de notícias e nas redes sociais, pressionou seus governos a tratarem o Brasil com desconfiança. A Amazônia é um desses casos emblemáticos de recrudescimento de uma construção ideológica sobre a primazia de desenvolvimento e a exploração de recursos. Das autoridades públicas e religiosas dos séculos XVI e XVII, passando pelos naturalistas dos séculos XVIII e XIX, chegando aos documentos e aos estudos produzidos no século XX. Impressiona a recorrência da visão edênica sobre a floresta, as impressões sobre o exotismo dos povos indígenas contatados, sobre a exuberância da fauna e da flora. Esse olhar" de fora", que não raro se estende sobre todos os que habitam esses espaços, é um dos pontos …

In light of the Peace Accord between the Colombian government and the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) in 2016, the chapter scrutinises present-day dilemmas and obstacles to a sustainable settlement capable of addressing the long-term developmental inequities of Colombia. It is expected that as Colombia becomes more integrated in the globalised economy, the many parties involved in the conflict will increasingly realise that they have more to gain with peace than otherwise and that this will pave the way to a renewed effort towards peace. Yet despite its many promises, as of now, the peace negotiations have primarily served as a means of potentially boosting the economy and facilitating access to leading business groups and foreign investors to Colombian resources rather than as a transformative move towards much-needed political and economic inclusivity. In fact …

Ontological and identitary questions affecting indigenous peoples are discussed through an assessment of the socio-spatial trajectory of the Guarani-Kaiowa of South America, employing an analytical framework centred around land, labour and ethnicity. These enhanced politico-economic categories provide important entry points for understanding the violence and exploitation perpetrated against indigenous groups, as well as their capacity to reclaim ancestral territory lost to development. Evidence indicates that ethnicity is integral to class-based processes, given that the advance of capitalist relations both presumes and produces difference and subordination. The case study in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul demonstrates that the Guarani-Kaiowa became refugees in their own land due to ethnic differences, but at the same time their labour has underpinned the regional economy to a considerable …

Within ecosocialist literature, there exists a significant lacuna on the subject of transformative agency, exactly those actors with the capacity and power to realise the ecosocialist vision. Our research explores this topic through (1) an analysis of three documents (the Belém Declaration; the Réseau Ecosocialist Manifesto; and Ecuador’s National Development Plan), which mirror ecosocialist goals and are actively followed by a group of people, and (2) a stakeholder power analysis of the actors involved in the controversial Belo Monte Dam project in Brazil. Five agents feature prominently in the discussion, two of which contrast with traditional red-green thought: social movements, indigenous groups, the affluent capitalist class, left-wing political parties and the state. Their specific capabilities and power resources determine the different roles they could assume in a transition from a capitalist to an ecosocialist …

Community water associations perform a pivotal role in the delivery of water services in the rural Ecuadorian Andes. The water that they deliver to houses and farmers is the fruit of a historical process of collective organisation that has united rural families and communities in a struggle to overcome socially constructed water scarcity. Through this ongoing struggle, water associations have developed varying degrees and forms of collective autonomy. Not only has this enabled them to distribute potable and irrigation water, but also create new social and political practices and relations. Drawing on the innovative work of Ana C. Dinerstein, this chapter traces the contours of this historical process, explaining how water associations have carved out space to take autonomous control of local water supplies and reconfigure relations with the state and nature.

The Amazon region is one of the most active frontiers of infrastructure expansion, resource extraction and socio-ecological exploitation in the world today. The Brazilian section of the region was dramatically inserted into the wider agenda of national development and global trade in the 1960s and, since then, negative socio-ecological impacts continue to increase, despite the introduction of comprehensive water and environmental legislation at the federal and state levels. An important process of politico-economic change is the construction of large-scale water projects, especially for hydroelectricity generation and river navigation (associated with export-oriented agribusiness). In that broad context, the chapter examines polices and strategies that encouraged resource grabbing and environmental injustices through an expanded political economy framework that integrates the politics of redistribution and …

This is the main conceptual chapter, which examines frontier making as historically crucial for the circulation and accumulation of capital. The relevance of frontier making is not only due to the demand for minerals, land or other resources, or because frontiers represent fresh market opportunities, but crucially because it operates as compensation for the saturation of the existing capitalist relations in core areas. The dynamics of frontier making can be summarised as the ‘law of scarcity–abundance’ (LSA), which recognises that human-made scarcities in areas of relatively advanced capitalism require, and prompt, the formation of new economic frontiers where there is perceived abundance of valued assets. LSA is a meta-theoretical synthesis of the gathering of problems in core, ‘established’ areas in association with promises of solution in frontier places. The State of Mato Grosso, in the southern tracts of the …

A educação escolar indígena é, para além da instrução formal, um dos instrumentos na luta dos povos indígenas pela recuperação de suas terras ancestrais. A partir dessa premissa, a Universidade de Cardiff, em parceria com a Unicamp e a Universidade Federal da Grande Dourados (UFGD), elaborou um projeto com o objetivo de conhecer aspectos da educação básica indígena e sua relevância política na afirmação das identidades étnicas, especialmente na recuperação de terras indígenas. O projeto foi dividido em duas partes. A primeira, realizada na Unicamp, consiste em utilizar dados de fontes secundárias para retratar as condições da educação escolar indígena no Mato Grosso do Sul e em São Paulo. A segunda investiga, por meio de entrevistas semiestruturadas conduzidas por pesquisadores da UFGD, as circunstâncias de elevada violência e discriminação sofrida pelos Guarani-Kaiowá em sua luta pelo direito à terra. Este texto registra os principais achados referentes à primeira etapa da pesquisa.

The Amazon represents one of the world’s most complex and consequential living spaces, with a wide range of unique socioeconomic activities, cultural realities, and politico-ecological challenges. Far from homogenous, the region comprises breathtaking animal and vegetal diversity, along with a multitude of landscapes, peoples, languages, cultures, and social compositions. The highly diversified Amazon biome occupies close to half of the vast South American continent, spreading across nine countries and encompassing around 30 million inhabitants. For at least 10,000 years, the interactions of different human populations over such a large territory (around 7 million km2) have helped shape biological and socio-spatial features of the region, fostering the propagation of new species of fauna and flora that still help to define the uniqueness of this complex, yet fragile, environment. The complexity of the Amazon is indeed legendary, though not properly understood by disciplinary scientific approaches, which are firmly based on binary notions of Western rationality that tend to dissociate society from the rest of nature, scientific findings from experience-based knowledge, and development from community and subsistence practices. For a long time, the region has been paradoxically and simultaneously celebrated and ignored, praised while also feared and even attacked by scientists and intellectuals who struggled to make sense of its intricate socio-ecological configuration. Hence, the urgency of considering lived and contested geopolitical realities of the Amazon as perennial spatial, material, and ontological frontiers. Specifically,

The challenges related to the conservation of the Pantanal are analysed through a study of the Cuiabá River Basin, one of the most impacted areas in the Upper Paraguay River Basin and located in the Brazilian State of Mato Grosso. The research findings show a clear disconnection between official monitoring data and wider perceptions of processes of eco-hydrological change. In addition, it is found that putting environmental regulatory tools into practice is problematic because of the pregiven foundations of conservation strategies promoted by public agencies. The most significant result of the analysis is the uncertainty in relation to the responsibility for environmental problems, which has created a perverse chain of ‘otherness–noneness–nothingness’. This serves to conceal the underlying causes of environmental degradation in the Cuiabá basin and limit possibilities for resolution. The main conclusion …

The chapter enlarges the examination of the notion of ‘resource frontiers’ and examines how the construction of dams and other related water infrastructure, as it has been happening particularly on the Brazilian section of the Amazon, is time and again used to propel and celebrate a nation’s modernisation, but it also serves to reveal how modernity is always partial, fraught with gaps and contradictions. The politics of modern water management in the Brazilian Amazon is scrutinised from a cultural, political and economic perspective that aims to contribute to an understanding of the politics of distribution, recognition and resignification that play an important role in the evolution of water modernity in the region. The chapter proposes a periodisation of regional water management, divided into three moments of intense socioecological change and political and economic influences. In that regard, Cultural Political …

It is discussed how socio-natural interactions in the Amazon bring the imprint of old and new forms of injustice, which are central driving forces in the reshaping of landscapes according to the balance of political power. Poverty is a condition of unsatisfied material and sociopolitical needs caused by combined mechanisms of exploitation, alienation and exclusion. The prevailing model of development and environmental management systematically reinforces hardship and destitution, at the same time it allows the corrosion of the forest. The chapter focuses on the lived experience of extractivist communities in the eastern Amazon, approaching these from the perspective of groups who only marginally benefit from the process of frontier making. Empirical results show that the politics of development and poverty in the Amazon do not happen about or around the forest, but with and through the forest. The main …

One of the main processes of politico-economic change in the Amazon Region today is the construction of large-scale water projects, especially for hydroelectricity generation and river navigation (associated with export-oriented agribusiness and mining). The article discusses resource grabbing and environmental injustices through a cultural, political economy framework to assess the main direction and the internal dimensions of development trends. Water projects are assessed concerning the contradictory advance of modernity, the ramifications of corrupted practices and the narrow basis of a prevailing technocratic and reductionist rationality.

There is little doubt that we live a world characterized by mounting dilemmas and fierce controversies. New problems accumulate and old ones deepen, while there is limited room for comprehensive, long-term solutions. Instead of addressing the distortions and inequalities associated with mainstream social, political, and economic institutions, public policies and private initiatives are often diverted toward the production of new spatial configurations. This movement, away from where the trouble originated, seems to suggest that central areas have become saturated with themselves, prompting the dislocation and reterritorialization of people and enterprises. Attempts to evade and transfer national or location-specific dilemmas to other socioeconomic settings seem to be a hallmark of capitalism’s unsettling powers and inherent contradictions. Since the European Renaissance, frontier-making has been a favorite response, to poverty, unemployment, land and housing deficits, resource exhaustion, environmental degradation, market saturation, and political persecution. The mitigation of socioeconomic tensions and the search for novel money-making opportunities in newly opened spatial frontiers have been crucial for the affirmation of capitalist modernity and the functioning of the modern world. Watts (1992: 116–17) considers frontiers as “particular sorts of spaces” that represent “the first wave of modernity to break on the shores of an uncharted heartland” with “their own territorial form of law and (dis) order.”

The chapter examines the main tendencies and perspectives of peasant family farming (PFF) in agricultural frontiers such as the Amazon. The ontological features of PFF are discussed, in particular, the multiple associations with, and subsumption to, agribusiness. It expands the discussion initiated in previous chapters to further discuss how, due to national politico-economic pressures, the Amazon was reinvented half a century ago as a vibrant agricultural frontier that attracted vast contingent of migrants due to coordinated government plans and, in more recent years, the cultivation of export-oriented crops. One very intriguing feature of this dynamic geography is that small family farming represents the ‘other’ of capitalist agriculture, but it functions as a hesitant form of alterity that both resists and fulfils rapidly expanding agribusiness. Furthermore, the intricate Amazon experience of approximation and …

The article examines the political perspective of Indigenous peoples in their effort to resist aggression and reclaim back land and opportunities lost to mainstream development. The discussion is based on an investigation into how the Guarani-Kaiowa of South America have been able to maintain a socio-spatial identity, react to specific socio-spatial injustices and at the same time associate their struggle with the campaign of other Indigenous groups. This concrete example is instrumental for demonstrating the application of political ontology as a tool for interrogating the impacts of Western modernity, the advance of agrarian capitalism and commonalities with related subaltern politics.

Agroculture frontiers in the Amazon: contested histories, emerging cultures, national territorialities [As fronteiras agroculturais na Amazônia: histórias contestadas, culturas emergentes, territorialidades nacionais] -ORCA Cardiff University | Prifysgol Caerdydd ORCA Online Research @ Cardiff Cardiff University | Prifysgol Caerdydd Welsh Clear Cookie - decide language by browser settings Home About ORCA Search Browse Latest Additions Policies Contact Us For Cardiff Authors User Area Login How to Add Research Your Research Thesis Copyright FAQ Agroculture frontiers in the Amazon: contested histories, emerging cultures, national territorialities [As fronteiras agroculturais na Amazônia: histórias contestadas, culturas emergentes, territorialidades nacionais] Ioris, Antonio Augusto Rossotto ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0156-2737, Neto, Vitale Joanoni and de Castro Barbosa, Xênia, eds. 2020. …

The Amazon Region is at the forefront of the global controversies over climate change, economic development and environmental justice. One of the main processes of change in the region nowadays is related to the construction of large-scale water projects, particularly for hydroelectricity generation and river navigation (associated with export-oriented agribusiness, timber harvesting and mining). Water infrastructure projects have been built through various forms of public-private association (mostly reliant on public funds and encouragement from governmental institutions) and have invariably caused widespread social, cultural and ecological impacts. Those negative consequences of large water infrastructure schemes reflect the interplay between the pressures for economic growth exerted from the main politico-economic centres and the unique geographical circumstances. Acknowledging the complex and controversial evolution of water management in the Amazon, our intention here is to briefly examine the association between water management, agricultural expansion and hydropower generation as an example of the influential water-agriculture-energy nexus and the failure of conventional mechanisms of water governance. The mobilisation of water resources as a main element of regional development and a mediator of intersectoral relations will be analysed from a critical, interdisciplinary perspective and the overall intention is to contribute to an understanding of the ecological politics associated with water allocation, use and conservation.The construction of dams and other related water infrastructure schemes, as it has been …

The chapter critically examines three main arguments regarding food security and their consequences for policy-making and development strategies. Market-based productivism remains the dominant position, calling for increased agri-food trade through the incorporation of new areas and higher productivity. Productivism was the key feature of the Green Revolution and continues to drive neoliberalized agribusiness. The common alternative is the pursuit of a post-productivist paradigm that emphasizes the environmental, cultural, and social dimensions of agriculture, however without a meaningful consideration of socio-political inequalities and environmental injustices. Finally, the search for food rights and community-based responses represents a radical departure from both productivism and post-productivism in favor of local production and food sovereignty, although the idealization of peasant agriculture often …

The chapter examines the survival strategies and political reactions of indigenous groups in areas of agricultural frontiers that are informed by cultural symbols, family bonds and land-based responses. It discusses the unique socio-spatial trajectory of indigenous peoples and, in addition, proposes a typology of indigenous spaces. The analysis is focused on the emblematic example of how frontier making was experienced by the Kaiowa-Guarani of South America. The wisdom and resistance of Kaiowa-Guarani groups derive from the simultaneous ethnicisation of space and spatialisation of culture. They have shown latent geographical agency shaped by religious practices, strong family ties and the ability to internally negotiate the return to their original areas. There are many lessons to be learned, in particular, the talent to absorb the increasing and dissimulated brutality of frontier making and, at the same …

Informed by the theoretical and empirical considerations discussed earlier in the book, the final chapter revisits the claim that frontier making has always been fundamental for the circulation and accumulation of capital. The centrality of frontiers is not only due to the demand for minerals, land or other resources, or because frontiers represent fresh market opportunities, but also crucially because it operates as compensation for the saturation of the existing capitalist relations in core areas. At the frontier, the conventional sequence of time and space is suspended and reconfigured, allowing room for the decompression of tensions and contradictions. Consequently, spatial frontiers function as a mirror, where the most bare and explicit features of capitalism are vividly exposed. The final pages examine the meaning and immanence of spatial frontiers, considering them as a laboratory of the historical and …

This is a collective document signed by indigenous and peasant representatives, politicians, civil society members, students, artists, activists, researchers and academics. It was approved during the fifth workshop of the Agrocultures network, which took place in Oxford in January–February 2020, at a moment when the Amazon was facing increasing levels of destruction, aggression and nothing short of a genocide. In many ways, the Amazon is the most crucial contemporary experiment of environment and development, where irrational, anti-people, anti-nature and anti-intelligence measures are being adopted, regardless of the will and the needs of most of its population. Old and perverse mechanisms of conquest and colonisation have been revitalised in the name of economic growth and national integration. This has resulted in a trail of violence, stupidity and systemic abuses associated with new roads …

The article deals with the meaning and the management of land-based resources by indigenous peoples, which are analyzed through an assessment of the lived spaces of the Guarani–Kaiowa indigenous people in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul. The discussion follows an analytical framework that is focused on land, labor and ethnicity. These interconnected politico-economic categories provide the basis for understanding the violence and exploitation perpetrated against indigenous groups, as well as their capacity to reclaim ancestral territories lost to extractivism and agribusiness development. Empirical results indicate that ethnicity is integral to labor and land management processes. In the case of the Guarani–Kaiowa, not only have they become refugees in their own lands due to racist discrimination, but also their labor has been incorporated in the regional economy through interrelated peasantification and proleterianization tendencies. The result is a complex situation that combines major socio-spatial asymmetries with the strategic, exploitative use of land and labor and the growing political contestation by the indigenous groups.

The chapter introduces the aims and content of the book, highlighting its focus on peripheral socio-economic areas and marginal regions where development, as traditionally defined, is still in the nascent stages. These peripheries constitute new frontiers for economic development and typically unveil a disconcerting combination of change and continuity, if not frustration. Frontiers contain the germ of renovation, the chance to begin something anew and avoid the failures experienced elsewhere. However, almost invariably, the result is a missed opportunity to enact a different trajectory, and the frontier becomes a spectre of what it could have been. Because socio-spatial frontiers emerge, primarily, to mitigate and ameliorate the troubles and insufficiencies that characterise the politico-economic centres from where people, capital and institutions originated, the central claim of the book is that frontiers are …

A questão agrária é multidimensional, multiescalar e envolve tanto momentos de conflito, bem como de conflitualidade. A questão agrária também está inserida no debate paradigmático–Paradigma da Questão Agrária e Paradigma do Capitalismo Agrário–em que ambos propõem modelos de desenvolvimento para o espaço agrário. Desde a década de 1990, o espaço agrário latino-americano é alvo da expansão de políticas neoliberais que incentivam o agronegócio pautado na produção de commodities para a exportação. Ao mesmo tempo, o campesinato e demais povos tradicionais da América Latina se organizam em movimentos socioterritoriais e promovem práticas de desenvolvimento contra-hegemônicas, ordenadas pela reforma agrária popular, agroecologia, soberania alimentar, educação do campo, entre outros. Estes modelos de desenvolvimento estão em conflito e em permanente conflitualidade, conformando o espaço agrária latino-americano.

Frontiers of Development in the Amazon: Riches, Risks, and Resistances contributes to ongoing debates on the processes of change in the Amazon, a region inherently tied to the expansion of internal and external socio-economic and environmental frontiers. This book offers interdisciplinary analyses from a range of scholars in Europe, Latin America, and the United States that question the methods of development and the range of socio-ecological impacts of those methods by examining the theoretical, methodological, and empirical dimensions of frontier-making along with evaluating and refining existing frameworks. Contributors focus on the complex politics of border formation shaped by institutional, economic, and political forces, placing them in relation to ethical, imaginary, and symbolic elements. In doing so, contributors explore the dynamic production of identities, values, and subjectivities, covering matters of migratory patterns, complex power struggles, and intensive—at times violent—clashes. Among other topics, this book assesses the recent encroachment of export-driven agribusiness into the Amazon Region in the context of recolonization, resource exploitation and multiple programs of modernization and national integration. Scholars of Latin American studies, international development, environmental studies, and applied social sciences will find this book particularly useful.

Amazonia Latitude Review is a peer-reviewed publication dedicated to studies of the Amazon and Pan-Amazon region, culture and environment. The magazine and review open spaces for critical debate and perspectives on topics affecting Amazonian cultures and lands. Articles are published continuously online and issued in a twice-yearly review. Individual articles, interviews, and additional content are available at https://amazonialatitude. com/Amazonia Latitude is published by the Portuguese Program at Florida State University and the Federal University of Amazonas.

The intention here, following the preceding discussion of the advancing agribusiness frontiers in the Amazon, is to discuss the main tendencies and perspectives of peasant family farming (henceforth PFF) in the same socio-spatial context. There already exists a vast literature on the impacts of economic development and natural resource disputes between these two main spheres of agriculture, however, it is less common to find texts that synthesise trends and critically review the lessons learned. Most publications invoke and reinforce a basic agrarian model built around policy-making, internal migration, land management and mounting socio-economic inequalities. While those pressures remain important, there is insufficient attention to the politico-economic specificities of agrarian capitalism in situations of rapidly consolidating agricultural frontiers under the influence of hegemonic agribusiness (Ioris 2018a). Our …

The intricacies of one of the most relevant agribusiness frontiers in the world today—the north of the State of Mato Grosso, in the southern section of the Amazon, Brazil—are considered through a critical examination of place making. Vast areas of Amazon rainforest and Savannah vegetation were converted there, since the 1970s, into places of intensive soybean farming, basically to fulfil exogenous demands for land and agriculture production. That goes beyond the configuration of new places at the agricultural frontier, and starts with a qualitative intellectual jump: from place making on the frontier to place making as an ontological frontier in itself. It means that, instead of merely studying the frontier as a constellation of interconnected places, we examine the politicised genesis of the emerging places and their trajectory under fierce socioecological disputes. The consideration of almost five decades of intense …