Paper short abstract:

This paper addresses agro-industrial developmentalism as a growth project through a historical-ethnographic analysis of groundwater depletion in Doñana, a protected area in southwestern Spain.

Paper long abstract:

This paper addresses agro-industrial developmentalism as a growth project through a historical-ethnographic analysis of groundwater depletion in Doñana, a protected area in southwestern Spain. Surrounded by Europe's leading berry production region, the Doñana wetlands are one of the continent's most visible hotspots of water conflict. Drawing on ongoing historical ethnographic research, this paper explores the resilience of growth imperatives in the region and their connection to conceptions of resource use and distribution. I focus on the entanglement of dominant understandings of regional and social inequality and the ways in which these legitimise the intensive exploitation of water, labour and land.