The Symbolic and Political Appropriation of Scales: a Critical Analysis of the Amazonian Ranchers' Narrative
Language
en
Article de revue
This item was published in
Geoforum. 2012, vol. 43, n° 3, p. 645-656
Elsevier
English Abstract
There are many examples of "local" discourses aiming to delegitimize environmental issues, demands, actions and governance by arguing that they pursue international goals, defined by international actors that do not meet ...Read more >
There are many examples of "local" discourses aiming to delegitimize environmental issues, demands, actions and governance by arguing that they pursue international goals, defined by international actors that do not meet local needs and frequently oppose them. We focus on the narrative held by large ranchers in the Eastern Amazon, which disqualifies the so-called top-down creation of protected areas that jeopardizes the "local development" these actors have, following the narrative, encouraged and sustained for years. Through the combination of an ontological and constructivist approach of scales, our contribution challenges this scalar construction questioning the "locality" of the large ranchers and showing that their role as "local developers" is actually rooted in regional/national/international scales. We then study the most important effect of the anti-environmental grand scalar narrative: its influence on regional and national decision makers. Well-conceived and publicized scalar scenarios are efficient in this context as in many othersRead less <
English Keywords
Amazon
Scale debate
Livestock
Rancher
Protected area
Deforestation
Grand narrative
Origin
Hal importedCollections