Paper short abstract:

We present a case study about the problem of the introduction of American crops at the beginning of the 19th century in the mountains of León. In an environmental key, we will emphasize the adaptation of the metabolic-social set to the new seeds, and its influence on agroecological balances.

Paper long abstract:

We propose to analyze in a historical-environmental key a case study whose objective is the introduction of potato crops in an agroecological system in which livestock and cereal predominated, and which at the same time was managed by the local political body, the common of neighbors. In 1820, 23 neighbors of the 40 that made up the council of Caboalles de Abajo committed to planting potatoes on their land in 3 areas of the town's terrace: the tuber was already known in those regions, but the provisions of these neighbors also threatened the set of easements associated with the rest of the land and access to the nearby mountains.

We will use the methodology of Social Metabolism. With the nexus approach, we will integrate the processes of appropriation, transformation, accumulation and excretion of natural resources, from the stock of materials necessary to release ecosystem services, under an organic energy obtaining regime. The concept of “fit” proposed by Karl Polanyi will allow us to locate the information obtained in a specific institutional framework. Agroecology will help us introduce into the analysis the dimension of “land” within the mountain community, especially in its conflictive aspect: we will focus on the levels of congruence between basic assets of a biophysical nature (land according to a specific use, livestock), and the social ones (work, its organization and the available exploitation capital), which in a peasant context are dedicated to its maintenance extended over time in line with the reproducibility of the agricultural population.

Paper short abstract:

Our paper focuses on social conflicts in northern Portugal – Trás-os-Montes and Minho - reflecting on the effects of socio-ecological transitions in the 18th and 19th centuries. By relating social conflict to the environment, the aim is to understand the dynamics of socio-environmental change.

Paper long abstract:

Our paper focuses on social conflicts in northern Portugal - the Minho and Trás-os-Montes regions bordering Galicia in Spain - reflecting on the effects of socio-ecological transitions in the 18th and 19th centuries. By relating social conflict to the environment, the aim is to understand the dynamics of socio-environmental change and contribute to deepening the debate on environmental justice or the so-called "environmentalism of the poor" (Martinez Alier) from a historical perspective. Based on a geographical context within Iberian Peninsula and with internal variations and where the Mediterranean climate typical of southern Europe predominates, we analyze the role of the commons in social conflict and socio-ecological transitions since the 18th century. In Portugal, these commons include wetlands, irrigated lands, some meadows, or even public roads (among other typologies). By analyzing these indicators through some case studies on a micro-scale and comparing them with realities already studied in other European contexts, the essential question is to understand how social conflict influenced socio-metabolic transitions during the early stages of the Anthropocene. In order to pursue this purpose, it is essential to understand the extent to which social conflict accelerated or delayed the change into a new metabolic regime, but also how local management of the commons constituted a model of environmental sustainability promoted by the poorest sections of the peasant population.

Paper short abstract:

This paper aims to study the role of environmental conflicts as a driver of the transformation of agroecosystems in several rural communities in Galicia in a long-term analysis (17th-21st). We will approach the relationship between conflict and sustainability through different metabolic regimes.

Paper long abstract:

Environmental conflicts have been a constant in the functioning of rural communities in the most diverse metabolic regimes, playing a key role in the metabolic configuration and change over time. But what motivates these conflicts? How does the community take shape in its evolution, in different contexts? And what role do factors such as class play in the process?

The aim of this paper is to take a long-term approach (17th – 21st centuries) to the dynamics of social conflict in the parishes of Laíño and Dodro (Galicia, NW Spain), focusing on environmental conflicts, specifically with regard to common lands and the collective management of resources. We are interested in analysing the role of conflict as a driving force in the transformation of landscapes and agroecosystems, as well as its relationship with sustainability in a broad perspective (ecological, economic and social). Studies of Commons, Political Ecology and the Agrarian Metabolism provide us with a theoretical and conceptual framework upon which we can build our proposal. Systematic work with a variety of sources, from judicial or cadastral documentation to interviews, will allow us to cross-check information and draw more complex conclusions about the main trends in environmental conflict over the last four centuries.

Paper short abstract:

Between the 1830s and 1870s, complaints about industrial pollution increased significantly in Valenciennes, a city located in the mining region of the Nord department (France). The aim of this article is to show that the transition to the industrial era was fundamentally a conflictual process.

Paper long abstract:

In the 19th century, the city of Valenciennes, located in the mining region of the Nord department in France, was heavily industrialised. At the beginning of the century, its industrial activity was dominated by coal mining, and secondarily by textile production and brewing. From the 1830s onwards, industrialisation accelerated considerably in this town: sugar, potash and alcohol factories began to pop up in large numbers in Valenciennes. What arises from the sources is that the 1830s were a decade of socio-ecological transition: complaints against the “dangerous, unsanitary and harmful factories” increased significantly. The fumes produced by the plants, which were massively powered by steam engines, were blamed by local residents for spreading foul smells and suspected of causing disease and destroying vegetation. The contamination of water by residual matters (such as molasses from the sugar factories) was also a source of environmental and health concerns. To deal with these new problems, the political, economic and scientific authorities have encouraged manufacturers to build higher chimneys, in order to dilute the smoke in the atmosphere. Around 1850, these authorities proposed to generalise the use of "smoke-burning" devices, which were then made compulsory for steam engines by decree in 1865. However, these devices were not really effective, and in the years that followed, other socio-environmental conflicts erupted because of the polluting factories. In this paper, I would like to explain why the protests against environmental degradation ultimately failed to prevent an increase in industrial pollution.

Paper short abstract:

During the industrialisation in Biscay (Basque Country, Spain) a set of environmental conflicts emerged, provoked by this process. Even though the conflicts had the same causes (mining and pollution), they provoked different responses due to the presence of diverse ideological frameworks.

Paper long abstract:

The process of industrialisation developed in Biscay (Basque Country, Spain) from 1880 to 1980 originated a set of socio-environmental conflicts, such as the related to Orconera Iron mining company in the first years of the XX century; the campaign against industrial pollution in Erandio in 1969, which was harshly repressed by the Franco’s Dictatorship; or the campaigns carried out by the environmentalism since the 1970s. Despite the fact that all these socio-environmental conflicts were very close related to the changes in the social metabolism, and, therefore, the same environmental situation, they developed in diverse ways because of the existence of different ideological frameworks that conveyed those environmental situations in a particular way. In fact, until the formation of environmentalism as a social movement, the socio-environmental conflicts were dispersed over this period.

The emergence of environmentalism enabled society to do a constant analysis of the environmental situation, creating a new level of opposition to the consequences of the industrialisation process. Hence, while, until the 1970s, only some aspects of the environmental situation created by industrialisation were a matter of social interest, since the formation of environmentalism that situation became a global subject of discussion in the Basque society. Thus, it can be considered that this change was possible thanks to the convergence of a set of ideologies and social movements, such as conservationism, citizens’ movement and antifrancoist left, that allowed the making of environmentalism.

Paper short abstract:

The historical urban growth of Guadalajara city above the hidric basins have produced a problematics including floods that have iniciated sociourban conflicts of segregation, fragmentation and inequlity around the enviromental changes in the metropolitan zone of Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico.

Paper long abstract:

Since ending ninety century, the historical urban growth of Guadalajara city above the hidric basins have produced a problematics correlated with the enviromental and clima changes specially in summer station. The modernization and gentrification of some areas have produced disasters on the urban patrimony due floods. The management of the disasters have iniciated sociourban conflicts, moreover problems of segregation, fragmentation and inequality around the enviromental changes, located vulnerable neigborhoods and social protests in the metropolitan zone of Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico.

At the first of twenty century the new residencial areas and the designation of industrial and workers neighborhoods has remarking the inequality of the natural zones. In this sense, the use of the natural heritage of the city were underliing the differences in the city. The problematic of flows has resulting of these differences due the socio metabolic development on the city. On the last years the local climate change has growing the dangerous of the summer storms and the urban patrimony destruction. These conditions of vulnerability specially in low level neighborhoods has remarked the fragmentation and the problematics of the management of the "non natural disasters" due the natural and historical flows of the antique rivers trhough the city.

Paper short abstract:

The paper analyses social protest in the European Union before and after the economic and financial crisis (2007 onwards) and relates it to changes in social metabolism and the dynamics of the trade union and green movements.

Paper long abstract:

The crises that the world has experienced since 2008 have altered both the configuration of social metabolism in Europe and social protest. Inter-territorial inequality and the rise of social inequalities are probably the most cited expressions of these crises. But it is much less well known that the growth of inequality is directly related to the biophysical dimension of the crisis. Indeed, it not only has there been a rupture in the processes of economic growth, but the patterns of material consumption and international trade in materials have been profoundly altered, generating two differentiated Europes: those countries that have maintained or even increased their material consumption (central and northern Europe) thanks to the maintenance of material imports, and those that have seen their material consumption fall drastically to occupy an increasingly subordinate position in the material and energy trade. Expressions of social protest have also changed, with environmentalist protests being displaced by the rise of class protests. The traditional environmentalism, in special the green parties, has misunderstood this relationship by emphasising the ecological aspects of environmental problems to the neglect of the social ones. But also, in recent years a new environmentalism has emerged in which the concern about the social issue and its environmental dimension is evident. In this paper we explore these processes, paying attention to changes within some strands of the environmental movement that show a high capacity to adapt to this new social context. A clear example is the social movement emerged around food and agroecology.

Paper short abstract:

The conventional agricultural logic of maximizing yields threatens forest ecosystems in which traditional erva-mate systems occur. Conflict arises between dominant agricultural narratives of productivity, and the environmental subjectivities, affect, and local ecological knowledge, held by farmers.

Paper long abstract:

Erva-mate (Ilex paraguaienses) is a key economic/cultural element of Indigenous and traditional communities, and many small-scale family farmers in Center-South Paraná state, Brazil. In traditional agroforestry systems, erva-mate is cultivated in fragments of Araucaria Forest (a threatened ecosystem in the Atlantic Forest), with a wide diversity of other species and non-wood forest products. Despite the different contexts and realities of the social actors that constitute these systems, erva-mate assumes a fundamental importance in the environmental and cultural identities of the people who continue these production systems and the forest with which it is associated. However, there is growing pressure on farmers to adopt high-intensity systems to increase production as a means of ‘modernization’ and rural development. The conventional agricultural logic of maximizing yields threatens the forest ecosystem in which traditional shade-grown systems occur. Conflict thus arises between dominant agricultural narratives of productivity espoused by the state and industry, and the environmental subjectivities, ecological knowledge, and affect for the forest held by small-scale farmers and traditional communities. This paper will consider a set of actions that a multidisciplinary team of researchers, farmers, and practitioners has been developing within the scope of the “Observatory for Traditional and Agroecological Erva-mate Production” – a multisectoral network of more than 30 institutions working to value and support the continuation of such systems – aimed at greater autonomy within the production chain and appreciation of the key role erva-mate producing communities have in preserving the forest environment and the knowledges associated with traditional agroforestry production systems.

Paper short abstract:

This paper delves into the history of squatters in Costa Rica during the second half of the 20th century. It analyzes the confrontation over land and forest use between the State, landowners, and impoverished peasants since the 1960.

Paper long abstract:

This paper delves into the history of squatters in Costa Rica during the second half of the 20th century. In light of recent studies dealing with land reform and forest conservation in Latin America, it analyzes the confrontation over land and forest use between the State and impoverished peasants since the 1960. It argues that Costa Rica’s land reform -deemed by many scholars as welfarist– took an orthodox approach combining land redistribution with the foundation of national parks. To begin with, the paper focuses on the disputes that arose among the State, landowners, and landless peasants during the implementation of the land reform in the 1960s. Second, it examines the conflicts between the State and the squatters during the creation of national parks between the 1960s and the 1980s. Furthermore, the paper shows the language used by landowners and State officials in criminalizing the squatters’ actions as antidemocratic and antiecological. In contrast, the peasants countered such a narrative with a discourse of “moral ecology” as suggested by historian Karl Jacoby. The study is based on archival sources, newspaper articles, technical reports and specialized literature.

Paper short abstract:

The transition to industrial agriculture has generated severe socio-environmental impacts, but has it also led to increased conflict? By contrasting the periods in biophysical, economic and political terms, we will determine whether agrarian protests are a response to changes in metabolism.

Paper long abstract:

The shift to an industrial metabolic regime has led to an increase in raw material extraction as well as waste generation. Social metabolism has allowed us to quantify the material and energy flows that a society exchanges with its environment. Meanwhile, Political Ecology has focused on the power relations inherent in the system and the conflicts that arise. The hypothesis is that the growth of the metabolic profile generates conflict, which can be analyzed from a socio-environmental perspective. To confirm this premise, the agricultural metabolism of Ecuador has been analyzed from 1961 to the present. The results show that the transition to an industrial agriculture has been based on both internal inequality and unequal ecological exchange on an international scale. By periodizing the main metabolic indicators, it will be determined whether they coincide with cycles of social mobilization with agricultural demands in the country, through the construction of historical series of the main protest repertoires. This will show whether conflict has indeed increased and to what extent it is related to increases in biomass extraction and its unequal distribution. Furthermore, at the identified turning points, an in-depth analysis of the causes of conflict will be conducted to determine whether these conjunctural moments of social unrest the unsustainability of this configuration. This, in turn, will help us better understand the role that social movements, in this case, peasants and indigenous organizations, can or do play in socio-environmental transitions, specifically in the industrialization of agriculture.

Paper short abstract:

Over the past 60 years, Vanoise National Park has witnessed a series of social conflicts. Our research uses an historical approch to reconstruct the narratives and stakes of these conflicts and show how this knowledge can be used to inform more sustainable and equitable decisions for the future.

Paper long abstract:

This paper proposes an exploration of the intricate relationship between social conflicts and socio-ecological transitions in the context of Vanoise National Park and its 5 natural strict nature reserve, situated in the heart of Savoy. Over the past 60 years, Vanoise has witnessed a series of social conflicts, driven by factors including environmental concerns, economical sustainability and ecological growing concern. These conflicts have been intertwined with the creation and management of the park, reflecting broader trends in environmental history.

Our research uses an historical archives analysis and oral sources to reconstruct the narratives and stakes of these conflicts, revealing the diverse stakeholders and their motivations. We analyze how these conflicts have shaped the park's policies and decision-making processes, offering valuable insights into the dynamics of socio-ecological transitions in IUCN’s protected areas categories I/II.

Moreover, this paper analyse how the author use this historical knowledge to provide the Vanoise National Parc executives via his participation to its Scientific Board. This paper will highlight how a deeper historical understanding of long time socio-ecological trajectories helps decision making. We argue that this historical lens can inform more sustainable and equitable decisions in the management of the park, particularly in a rapidly changing environmental context.

This paper contributes to the broader discourse on environmental history and its significance in addressing contemporary environmental challenges. It showcases the importance of considering historical socio-ecological conflicts when shaping policies for a sustainable future, with Vanoise National Park since its creation in 1963 as a compelling case study.