Towards a political eco/ontology of development: territory and relationality from Latin America

Abstract

In this article, I recover some key elements of the deconstruction of development with the object of advancing im a critical understanding of the relationships between society and nature, from a decolonial perspective. In this framework, I propose an investigation of development as a modern/colonial dispositive, recovering contributions that I consider fruitful for the construction of an interdisciplinary approach that integrates the eco and ontological dimensions in the understanding of socio-environmental conflicts and resistances.

Based on this, I focus on three axes of reflection that I consider central to this inquiry: firstly, around the construction of state-modern territoriality and the coloniality of nature, historical roots that allow us to understand the long process of conquest and Latin American colonization as a condition of possibility for the deployment of the modern dispositive of development. And, later, around relationality as a key element for a political ecology and ontology.

The work aims to offer a kind of epistemic-political coordinates to guide a path of critical inquiry around the intersection between nature, culture, territory and development, within the framework of the invitation to build critical cartographies of the territory. At the same time, to highlight the main contributions of the post-development perspective, as an approach focused on resistance, adaptations and subversions against development.

As a corollary to this inquiry, I present some elements that, from my position, are today challenges in the construction of Latin American social sciences. New -and not so new- questions that challenge our work and our daily critic.