Abstract

ESTRELLA, Melisa. Territorial Hallmarks and Environmental Conflicts. An interpretation from the cultural approach of geography. Invest. Geog [online]. 2023, n.110, e60656.  Epub June 26, 2023. ISSN 2448-7279.  https://doi.org/10.14350/rig.60656.

For several years, studies on environmental conflicts have started to focus on the social and territorial effects of these disputes. These works addressing the productivities of conflicts have demonstrated their potential to regard these phenomena as transformation events.

Territorial productivities refer to the territorial transformations that emerge from conflicts. These refer to changes in spatial representation and qualification and the creation of new territories, delineation of zones, changes in land use, and control. Here we find a less explored aspect that allows linking both dimensions and considers another modality of territorial productivity, dealing with the interpretation of territorial hallmarks that emerge in the context of conflicts.

This study proposes to incorporate the interpretation of territorial hallmarks as a specific type of territorial productivity. To this end, it is essential to consider the contributions of the cultural approach of Geography, observing the materiality, the senses, and the practices articulated around these forms arising from the stakeholders involved in the conflicts.

The Discussion section proposes considering territorial hallmarks as modalities and spaces that adopt or confirm meanings as a result of a social process within a given historical context. Territorial hallmarks add clarity to the relationship between the materiality of a form and the allocation of meaning, the creation and maintenance of which involve collective processes linked to a territorial project.

This is the starting point for articulating considerations that allow us to focus on the symbolic and political value of hallmarks, spatial practices, and narratives articulated around these forms and that are intertwined with the construction of identities and memorization processes.

To deepen the proposal, the article analyzes territorial hallmarks produced during a relevant national and Latin American environmental conflict: the dispute around open-pit mining in Esquel (Chubut, Argentina) since 2002. Two decades later, questions arise as to what territorial hallmarks have been built from collective actions and how they relate to the spatial meanings and practices of the community.

These questions were addressed through a methodological design in line with the cultural approach of Geography, which assumes the challenge of accessing the interpretations and meanings, as well as the various opinions and practices of the local urban inhabitants. In this respect, the Methodology section addresses the characteristics of fieldwork in Esquel, based on Lindon's considerations in his proposal of geographical constructivism.

In addition to in-depth work considering different secondary sources - academic studies and audiovisual productions, among others - to reconstruct the events and process of the case, fieldwork combined the observation and photographic record of possible territorial hallmarks with non-directive interviews in which the different images of forms sought to favor free association processes and stimulate accounts about spatial practices and meanings.

Interviews were conducted in March 2021 with residents of Esquel having different conceptions and degrees of involvement in the environmental conflict. These interviews allowed for evaluating to what extent the forms photographed can be considered territorial hallmarks of the conflict.

From this work, the Results section analyzes three territorial hallmarks that emerged from the collective actions in Esquel in opposition to open-pit mining and the way in which these are conceived by the local community. Each has its own characteristics: a "No to the mine" legend written with painted stones on the hill closest to the city, a place that is considered the location of collective actions, and a plaque commemorating the referendum in a central corner facing the building that was once the office of the mining company Meridian Gold.

The analysis of these forms from the stories of people involved in different ways in the conflict illustrates various aspects discussed from the conceptualization of territorial hallmarks. Additionally, this analysis aims to show that territorial hallmarks have meanings and carry narratives of the conflicts, sometimes dissimilar or antagonistic according to the perspective of different social stakeholders, but which contribute to sustaining conflicts as a backbone of the territorial project of communities.

Keywords : productivities; territory; Esquel; open-pit mining; collective actions; interviews.