REVISTA CONTROVERSIA

Naturaleza, cultura y justicia social

2025-05-14T19:33:47-05:00

Data centers as centers of conflict: the case of wetlands in Quilicura and Cerrillos (Chile)

2025-03-31T16:42:21-05:00

Throughout the paper, two Chilean movements against the installation of hyperscale data centers are presented from a decolonial perspective: Resistencia Socioambiental Quilicura and Movimiento Socioambiental Comunitario por el Agua y el Territorio (MOSACAT). For this purpose, a three-phase analysis is carried out. First, we study the ecosocial conflicts caused by data centers, paying special attention to the energy, water, and noise impacts on neighboring communities and ecosystems. Second, we analyze the trend over the last decade of outsourcing data centers to countries in the Global South, especially in Latin America. Finally, two case studies are conducted in the northeast of Santiago de Chile, exploring the interaction between international technology companies, local political institutions, and neighborhood movements.

Forms and strategies of paramilitarism: theoretical approximation to the model of Urabá and Puerto Boyacá

2025-03-31T16:42:21-05:00

The aim of this article is to theoretically describe the two main models of paramilitarism that emerged in Colombia between 1981 and 2006: the Puerto Boyacá model and the Urabá model. In this sense, the text will use the tools of organizational sociology to study paramilitarism as an ‘organizational model’ adopted by a specific self-defense group to occupy and control a territory. In the first part, through a review of the available literature, the concepts of ‘model,’ ‘method,’ and ‘project’ will be analyzed. Moreover, by comparing the rulings of the Justice and Peace courts with the theories developed by various authors, it will be possible to provide a solid theoretical basis to define the characteristics of the Puerto Boyacá model and the Urabá model.

When does a socio-environmental conflict end? Temporalities, emotions, and fights around El Quimbo and Hidroituango reservoirs (Colombia)

2025-05-20T11:07:17-05:00

Many of the socio-environmental conflicts derived from the development process in Colombia lead us to think about the sociocultural transformations and interventions, in the infrastructures that emerge, and modern life. These structures, in this case of study, are the El Quimbo and Hidroituango reservoirs; which have not only contributed to the supply of electrical energy but also generated ecosystem and sociocultural affectations. Thus, this article seeks to explore the changes in forms of life, emotions, and resistance that arise because of these conflicts over time. Political ecology is used as a perspective for these issues To do so, we begin with a contextualization of the importance of water for energy production in Colombia and the tensions that arise with the affected territories, using the concepts of hydro-social territory and social production of space; then, making a brief historical-political contextualization from the 1920s to the 2010s; and finally, we cover the subjective dimensions of conflict, which explore practices, territorialities, temporalities, affects and resistances of the affected communities. Special emphasis should be placed on emotionality as an engine of struggle and resistance in social organizations that emerge from the dams.

The Methodology of Environmental History and its Contributions to the Study of Indigenous Peoples in Latin America

2025-03-31T16:42:21-05:00

this article examines how environmental history has become a key tool for understanding the struggles of Indigenous peoples in Latin America, focusing on the defense of nature and territories. Ecological and territorial conflicts, originated in the historical interaction between Indigenous societies and their environment, are deeply connected to their traditional practices and ecological knowledge. These conflicts often arise from confrontations between Indigenous communities and external actors, such as the State, extractive companies, and international policies, that seek to exploit or control their resources. In Colombia, the Consejo Regional Indígena del Cauca (CRIC) has played a crucial role in the defense of territorial rights and environmental protection since the 1970s. cric’s struggles not only address environmental degradation, but also represent a cultural and political resistance, which has been essential to biodiversity conservation. The article argues that environmental history provides an interdisciplinary approach that enhances understanding of human-nature interactions, offering new perspectives for studying environmental conflicts in the global south.

Forest Reserve Areas as an open system between nature and peasantry

2025-04-11T14:53:16-05:00

Act 2 of 1959 created the Forest Reserve Zones as a figure for the management of the country´s forest areas, with the objective of developing the forest economy and protecting the soil, water, and wildlife. Although the Forest Reserve Zones do not constitute protected areas, a restrictive approach has been adopted that has prevented the allocation of land to peasants, leading to the social, economic, and political exclusion of this population. The article invites us to rethink the figure of Forest Reserve Zones, in which the development of the rights of the peasantry provides the basis for building a new type of relationship between the peasantry and nature.

Peasant Reserve Zones as Other Effective Conservation Measures: A Literature Review

2025-04-28T19:27:44-05:00

Other Effective Area-Based Conservation Measures (OECMs) represent a complementary strategy to Protected Areas (PAs) for balancing biodiversity conservation with the well-being of local communities. In Colombia, Peasant Reserve Zones (ZRC) are rural territories located in regions of high natural wealth. However, their role in environmental conservation has been scarcely studied, and there is still no consolidated information on their impact on biodiversity. This article presents a systematic literature review to assess whether ZRCs meet the criteria for recognition as OECMs. The findings suggest that these zones possess favorable characteristics, such as geographic delimitation, governance mechanisms, and sustainable agroecological practices. However, knowledge gaps persist regarding their contribution to biodiversity conservation and deforestation control, which limits their evaluation under the established OECM criteria. It is concluded that academic research on the environmental dimension of ZRCs must be strengthened to more precisely determine their role in biodiversity conservation and their potential recognition as OECMs in the future.

Citizen Participation and Environmental Management in Public Policies in Mexico City (Mexico)

2025-09-09T09:00:15-05:00

Public policies contribute to solving urban problems and foster local development as well as citizen-led initiatives. The purpose of this research was to analyze the integration between environmental management and citizen participation as a strategic axis of public policies, framed within the discourse of sustainability in Mexico City. A content analysis of various public policies was conducted, leading to the construction of the categories “environmental management” and “citizen participation,” based on the identified patterns. The findings revealed that public policies have prioritized the economic development of Mexico City, integrated citizen participation and addressing environmental issues but without fully incorporating environmental management. The public policy framework presents a political discourse centered on sustainability and collective well-being, while simultaneously accommodating economic and developmental interests. Finally,
public policies implemented during the 2018–2024 period have provided greater leeway for citizen involvement and positioned sustainability as a cross-cutting axis for the city’s economic development and growth.

The Invention of the Natural Resource

2025-03-31T16:42:21-05:00

The article integrates a first investigation of the dimensions of the invention of the natural resource as a problematic category. The approach is generated with the intention of defining the processes that each dimension separately integrates: The first, critical reflection, which results in highlighting the battlefield of the Climate Crisis and its edges: the fallacy of “climate change” and the cover-up of possible climate wars. The second, the interpellation discussion that emerges as a militant theoretical corpus when its generating core raises the absences of justice as an axiology. Finally, the third dimension refers to the condition of possibility of subverting the threats of climate change/crisis/war with popular reparative eco-militant actions from the geocultures of the global south tropics. This co-research takes place from our militancy at the Bolivarian University of Venezuela, Caracas headquarters, combining the disciplines of the philosophy of cimarronage
with the economic geopolitics of ecocidal development (political ecology). The fusion of both sentipensations, the twinning of the human sciences and the natural sciences, seeks to provide foundations to the popular sciences for the integral ecosystem safeguard and the enduring life that produces and reproduces the biodiverse tropics of the global south.

Imaginaries and cosmotechniques of postnaturalism

2025-03-31T16:42:21-05:00

The debate on the boundaries between the natural and the artificial challenges the role of humans as articulators, mediators, or as separate from the organic, while also addressing the substantial disruptions to ecosystems caused by human presence. This article offers a critical reading of postnaturalism, understood as an imaginary rooted in technoscience and genetic interiority. Methodologically, it follows three steps: a genealogical review to identify the foundations and positioning of postnaturalism; the characterization of the relationship between nature and artificiality, which underpins the transcendence of nature; and an analysis of postnatural action and its limits. The article concludes that postnaturalism synthesizes time, space, and corporeality, differing from the sympoietic processes of organic entities within ecological contexts. This mode of action involves significant risks, such as the fabrication of nature, the synthesis of worldly experience, and the impact on the sense of dwelling with other species. The originality of this text lies in exploring a contemporary yet under-analyzed phenomenon, examining postnaturalism through its cosmological construct, social imaginary, and the implications of conceptualizing nature as biotechnological artificiality.

Wildfires, biodiversity and governance

2025-04-30T15:50:04-05:00

El texto analiza la creciente amenaza que representan los incendios de cobertura vegetal (ICV) para la biodiversidad en Colombia, en el contexto de un incremento en su frecuencia e intensidad, en gran parte atribuido al cambio climático y las actividades humanas. A pesar de que el país cuenta con un marco normativo claro y roles bien definidos en la gestión de los ICV, la desconexión entre la normativa y la ejecución en terreno limita la efectividad de las acciones. Los incendios afectan de manera drástica a ecosistemas clave, como selvas tropicales y páramos, y ponen en riesgo especies vulnerables, a la vez que alteran las dinámicas ecológicas y la estructura de los hábitats.

El artículo subraya la importancia de desarrollar modelos de gobernanza más participativos e inclusivos, que involucren a todos los actores, especialmente a las comunidades locales, quienes juegan un papel clave en la prevención de incendios. Se plantea que la gobernanza actual es fragmentada y reactiva, enfocada principalmente en la respuesta a emergencias, y carece de estrategias preventivas a largo plazo. Finalmente, el artículo hace un llamado a mejorar la colaboración entre los diferentes niveles de gobierno, organizaciones no gubernamentales, sector privado y comunidades, así como a fomentar la investigación científica sobre los incendios y sus efectos en la biodiversidad.

Diverse experiences in a biodiverse, port and ecotourism place: Colombian pacific bonaverense!

2025-04-30T15:51:16-05:00

NO REQUIERE POR SER VOZ DESDE LA BASE

Muñoz, John y Villa, Diana. (2023). Mujeres, memoria y resistencia. Universidad de Antioquia

2025-03-31T19:20:28-05:00

This review addresses the key aspects of the book Mujeres, memoria y resistencia published in the city of Medellín by the University of Antioquia in 2023. The book written by researchers John Mario Muñoz Lopera and Diana Sofía Villa Múnera has 126 pages . and presents the biographical portraits of four women, victims of violence and leaders of organizational and protest processes for victims in the city of Medellín. The victimizing events that occurred between 1990 and the 2000s are contextualized within the framework of the dynamics of the internal armed conflict in the department of Antioquia and the style and content of the book is critically analyzed, paying special attention to the case of Ana Fabricia Córdoba as it constitutes a process of collective memory construction in progress. The text also recognizes the place of the publication in the recent interest of the academic community in the personal stories of women immersed in the Colombian conflict from the dual status of victims and perpetrators.

Holemans, Dirk; Osman, Philsan y Franssen, Marie-Monique. (2022). Dare to care. Ecofeminism as a source of inspiration. SKRIBIS

2025-04-03T19:21:15-05:00

The present review analyzes the book Dare to Care, an apology for ecofeminism that aims to enrich the degrowth program with an explicit and intersectional gender perspective.