Counter-geographies of aquaculture development: territorial discourses and social movements in Southern Chile

Abstract

The study of development discourses elaborated in contexts of socio-territorial conflict is an area of growing interest in the social sciences, as it allows us to understand the conditions of production of territories from a geographical and discursive perspective. In this article we analyse the territorial discourses generated by three social movements that emerged in the period 2015-2020, and that critically position themselves in the face of the socio-environmental conflict derived from the dumping of dead salmon by the salmon farming project and the subsequent red tide crisis in the Chiloé archipelago in 2016. Applying a methodology focused on critical discourse analysis, we identify alternative representations of the territory that coexists in tension with the salmon farming industry and local actors who strive to generate post-extractivist development models in which cultural and territorial dimensions assume a predominant role.