Paper short abstract:

The paper examines the new forms of inequality created by the arrival of the global salmon farming industry in Southern Chile and the social struggles that respond to them. Following a Polanyian perspective, the study intents to enrich the GPN/GVC framework by bringing in a social movement approach.

Paper long abstract:

Since the mid-eighties, the salmon industry in Southern Chile has evolved to a global industry. Long hailed as a success story of export diversification, cluster formation and job creation in a remote area, the outbreak of fish diseases put the global industry into an ongoing severe crisis.

The salmon farming industry generates a range of conflicts linked to diverse social actors, located in the area and beyond. On the side of labor, seasonal migrant workers, subcontracted suppliers, female factory workers and highly specialized employees react differently to layoffs and the lowering of working conditions and remuneration. Social-ecological conflicts involve traditional fishermen, local communities, women`s organizations and environmental groups at different spatial scales.

The paper links the paradigm of global production networks with social movement theory, following a Polanyian perspective. Starting point is the assumption that the protests follow different logics, all of them can be seen as responses to different forms and dimensions of commodification, set in force by the arrival of the global industry: struggles against the marketization of land and sea, and struggles against the commodification of labor which entails also ex-commodification, the expulsion of labor in terms of crisis, and re-commodification when working conditions become worse.

The paper examines empirically new forms of inequality created by the arrival of the global industry and how social actors at different spatial scales react on them. The study intents to enrich the GPN/GVC approach by bringing in social actors and their struggles against commodification.