Disentangling Environmental and Development Discourses in a Peripheral Spatial Context: The Case of the Aysén Region, Patagonia, Chile

• Author: C.S.A. (Kris) van Koppen,Pamela Bachmann-Vargas
• Published date: 01 September 2020
• Date: 01 September 2020
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/1070496520937041
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

Disentangling

Environmental and

Development

Discourses in a

Peripheral Spatial

Context: The Case

of the Ays

en Region,

Patagonia, Chile

Pamela Bachmann-Vargas

1

and

C.S.A. (Kris) van Koppen

1

Abstract

In places with a predominantly natural heritage, environmental and development

discourses are intertwined and often competing. A key dimension is the social con-

struction of socio-spatial relationships, and particularly, the attribution of core and

periphery features. In this article, we investigate environmental and development

discourses in the peripheral spatial context of the Ays

en region of Chile. Three

research questions guide the investigation: (a) What are the dominant environmental

and development discourses? (b) what are the main synergies and tensions among

discourses? and (c) what are the (discursive) implications for (de-)peripheralization?

Based on semistructured interviews and secondary sources, we identify six regional

discourses on environment and development. Imaginaries of nature, regional devel-

opment, and economic growth are the common denominators that create synergies

and tensions. We conclude that environmental and development discourses play a

1

Environmental Policy Group, Wageningen University & Research, Wageningen, the Netherlands

Corresponding Author:

Pamela Bachmann-Vargas, Environmental Policy Group, Wageningen University & Research. Hollandseweg

1, 6706 KN Wageningen, the Netherlands.

Email: pamela.bachmannvargas@wur.nl

Journal of Environment &

Development

2020, Vol. 29(3) 366–390

!The Author(s) 2020

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DOI: 10.1177/1070496520937041

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key role in the transformation of geographic peripheral areas. Discursive synergies

can not only reinforce but also counteract tendencies of peripheralization.

Keywords

discourses, core–periphery pattern, (de-)peripheralization, socio-spatial patterns,

Northern Patagonia

Remote peripheral regions are often associated with high levels of naturalness,

conservation values, high distance costs, and territorial inequalities (Copus,

2001; Hall & Boyd, 2005). In such areas, discourses on environmental protection

enmesh and often compete with discourses on socioeconomic development. In

this article, we investigate these discourses and their interplay in the peripheral

spatial context of the Ays

en region, a remote region in southern Chile.

In scientif‌ic literature, peripheral areas have traditionally been def‌ined in

structural and static terms, in relation to their geographic distance to urban

centers, remoteness, sparse population, elevated travel and service costs, and

lack of infrastructure and innovation (Copus, 2001). In addition, peripheries

have been characterized in rather negative terms, as being backward in terms of

development, and powerless (Ku

¨hn & Bernt, 2013; Ku

¨hn et al., 2017).

More recent spatial research, however, has thematized the so-called periph-

eralization process as a way to understand social dynamics with spatial impli-

cations, specif‌ically related to mechanisms of out-migration, dependence,

disconnection, and stigmatization (Ku

¨hn, 2015). Thus, peripheralization can

be understood as a multidimensional and dynamic process whereby peripheral

areas emerge and change while reinforcing and reproducing the spatial dispar-

ities in relation to the core (Harders, 2015; Naumann & Reichert-Schick, 2013).

Peripheralization may occur in urban as well as in rural areas and is not f‌ixed to

a specif‌ic geographic location (Beetz et al., 2008). By overcoming certain periph-

eral conditions, geographic areas may engage in deperipheralization processes

(K€

ohler, 2012). The conceptualization of when and how an area is being peri-

pheralized or deperipheralized remains an open debate (Fischer-Tahir &

Naumann, 2013). Meyer and Miggelbrink (2013) emphasize that if research

on peripheralization aims “to go beyond a taken-for-granted structuration of

the social world, (it) has to conceptualize the production and effects of meaning”

(p. 208). They consider discursive processes as a key component in the formation

of socio-spatial patterns. By consequence, meanings ascribed through discursive

(re)productions are pertinent to the social construction of socio-spatial

Bachmann-Vargas and van Koppen 367