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Origins of Scarcity: Labour and the Metabolism of Groundwater in the Doñana Socioecological System

Descripción del proyecto

Las relaciones laborales y el metabolismo de las aguas subterráneas

El Parque Nacional de Doñana en España es un espacio declarado Patrimonio de la Humanidad y una de las reservas naturales y hábitats de aves más importantes de Europa. La región es asimismo una de las zonas más extensas de cultivo de fresas de todo el mundo. Sin embargo, la agricultura intensiva repercute en la reproducción de este importante sistema de humedales. El proyecto ORIGINSOFSCARCITY, financiado con fondos europeos, estudiará la interacción entre el agotamiento de los acuíferos y la agricultura intensiva en los humedales de Doñana mediante el análisis del impacto sobre los ecosistemas de la agricultura intensiva orientada a la exportación. El proyecto se centrará en la mano de obra como un problema clave en el que empleo y conservación de las aguas subterráneas entran en conflicto. Abordará el metabolismo del extractivismo de agua y arrojará nueva luz sobre la resiliencia de los imperativos de crecimiento y sus repercusiones medioambientales al considerar las relaciones laborales en la agricultura como procesos medioambientales.

Objetivo

ORIGINSOFSCARCITY explores the dynamics underlying aquifer depletion through a focus on agricultural labour in export-oriented water intensive farming. Opening the black box of “human-induced environmental change”, the project addresses not only the uneven distribution of environmental harm, but the processes through which people become unequal participants in its production, thus furthering the integrated study of labour and ecological distribution conflicts. ORIGINSOFSCARCITY is a historical ethnography of groundwater depletion and the conflicts surrounding it. The dynamics underlying aquifer depletion are analyzed through the case of the Doñana Wetlands, a World Heritage Site and one of Europe’s most important nature reserves. Located in southwestern Spain, the Doñana National Park has figured prominently in the European environmental conservation agenda for more than half a century. The Doñana region is also one of the most important areas of strawberry farming in the world. The use of groundwater as a primary input in export-oriented strawberry farming is the main process affecting the reproduction of the largest wetland system in the European Union. Attempts to curtail agricultural water use for the purposes of environmental conservation have been portrayed as inimical to job creation and economic growth and more than two decades of administrative measures have not led to the stabilization of groundwater consumption. The project addresses the metabolism of water extractivism in Doñana by focusing on its neglected component: labour. It casts new light on the resilience of growth imperatives and their environmental consequences by showing the ways in which these are anchored by prevailing relations of production and reproduction. The analysis of agricultural labour relations as ecological processes opens a privileged window onto the articulation of social and environmental processes and advances ongoing conversations about overcoming nature-society dualisms.

Coordinador

UNIVERSITAT DE BARCELONA
Aportación neta de la UEn
€ 160 932,48
Dirección
GRAN VIA DE LES CORTS CATALANES 585
08007 Barcelona
España

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Región
Este Cataluña Barcelona
Tipo de actividad
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Enlaces
Coste total
€ 160 932,48