Abstract

The increasing use of energy, materials and space by modern societies has been intensifying tensions in several territories of the planet, especially in the outskirts of comfort borderlines. Reacting to this trend, conflicts opposing the environmentally unequal exchange which is promoted by the capitalist hegemony appear in the outskirts. Their origins lie in the populations whose survival depends intrinsically on the protection of their ecosystems and biodiversity. The association between survival and social, economic and environmental issues, marked by an evaluating language which refuses monetarism, draws an identity of conflict which can be called "environmentalism of the poor".

The issues of environmental distribution, together with most environmental conflicts, become particularly explicit in these moments, which allow exposing and understanding the tensions and power relations in the access to environmental resources, as well as different languages for their better use. These conflicts can only be interpreted as an historical process, and, in particular, the way in which societies, at different geographical scales, economic sectors or social groups, are organized in order to maintain certain stabilizing patterns of reproduction. This organization, like other adaptive complex systems, depends on the maintenance of certain metabolism patterns, that is the input and output of several flows, such as energy, water, materials and capitals and their articulation with time and soil use patterns.

This session will provide an introduction to the analysis of social metabolism and its usefulness as a tool to understand environmental conflicts.

Biographic Note

Gualter Barbas Baptista holds a Doctoral Degree in Environmental Sciences by the New University of Lisbon. His research focus on the fields of environmental economics and political ecology, at CENSE - Centre for Environment and Sustainability Research, of the New University of Lisbon (http://cense.fct.unl.pt). He is member of the Editing Committee of the journal Ecología Política. He is the co-author of the book La Deuda Ecológica Española - Cuando la economía española cuza nuestras fronteras" (in English: "The Spanish Ecological Debt: When the Spanish economy crosses our borders") and several scientific and dissemination papers. He is an environment and social activist. He also contributes to the inGENEa blog (http://ingenea.gualter.net).

Note: Seminar organized within the Environment and Society Workshop