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.