Browsing by Author "Acuna, Valentina"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
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    Extractivist droughts: Indigenous hydrosocial endurance in Quillagua, Chile
    (2022) Acuna, Valentina; Tironi, Manuel
    Extractivism is intensifying climate-induced water tensions in indigenous communities. As a response, climate sciences have acknowledged the capacity of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) for the design and application of ad-hoc adaptation techniques and interventions. However, the mainstream literature on indigenous water-related adaptation has often presented TEK in ways that neglect the knowledge flexibility and its political role in community perseverance and indigenous resurgence. To expand on this analysis, we examine the case of the Aymara community of Quillagua in northern Chile in the context of "extractivist droughts," or water dispossession caused by the mining complex. Specifically, we describe how Quillaguenos and Quillaguenas articulate multiple strategies to resist against, co-exist with, and flourish in the face of the entwined effect of extractivism and colonialism on water, or what we call indigenous hydrosocial endurance. Drawing upon an ethnohistorical approach, we reconstruct the history of indigenous hydrosocial interventions articulated in Quillagua. Our results suggest that the Aymara community of Quillagua has resorted to four strategies to endure water dispossession over time: endurance by invention, reappropriation, ethnification, and tweaking. Each of these strategies responds to the specific and evolving hydro-political conditions produced by mining extraction that have affected indigenous livelihoods in the Atacama Desert since the 19th century. We conclude the article by arguing that adaptation literature and policy should acknowledge the embodied condition of indigenous knowledges; otherwise, it may be disempowering indigenous struggles against settler-colonialism.
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    From the Utopia of Sustainable Development to Sustainable Topoi
    (CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS, 2023) Salazar, Gonzalo; Acuna, Valentina; Valera, Luca; CEDEUS (Chile)
    The hegemonic discourse of sustainable development adopted as an international alternative solution to the socio-ecological crisis has implied a progression of the modern utopian project and most importantly, an intrinsic contradiction and omission that positions sustainable development as something that is not in any place. To understand, discuss, and transcend this oxymoron, we first review the modern utopian project and analyze its paradigmatic and ontological assumptions about knowledge, time, and space. Second, we show that sustainable development just re-adapted the founding premises of the modern utopias. Third, to transcend the modern utopian facet of sustainable development, we suggest an understanding of sustainability that stems from a topographical way of thinking. We suggest this approach allows us to seek alternatives to the modern epistemology and ontology that have shaped the current dominant vision of sustainable development. Finally, we propose to move from the modern utopia of sustainable development to the praxis of topographical sustainabilities to trigger a more comprehensive and relational praxis of sustainability.
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    Intertwining volcanoes and society in Chile through arts and interdisciplinary connections
    (2024) Acuna, Valentina; Clunes, Matias; Valdebenito, Sebastian Riffo; Browning, John
    The conceptual distance between nature and society has been a concern within social sciences and interdisciplinary debates. We contribute to this discussion illustrating how arts have played an important role in demonstrating the entanglement of Earth and society through their ability to frame and shape the dynamics of the Earth across sensations. Through an examination of artistic representations in Chile, we seek to show how the proximity of Chilean society to the presence of volcanoes has been eloquently conveyed through various artistic styles across different historical epochs. Our study extends from the birth of the Chilean nation in 1818 to the year 2021, and examines a wide range of artistic representations, that encompass national symbols, image-making techniques, sculpture, art installations, poetry, music, and audiovisual works. Our research represents a pioneering effort to explore the diverse representations of volcanoes in Chile and has uncovered a remarkable diversity of artistic expressions that reflects the deep connection between Chilean society and volcanic processes and landscapes. Ever-present and often breathtaking, volcanoes have served as enduring symbols of national identity and as sources of inspiration for artists of diverse disciplines and aesthetic sensibilities. We illustrate how the arts reveal the relationship between volcanoes and social life and provide the basis for a detailed analysis that explores the temporal and spatial contexts in the representation of volcanoes and the human perception of geological phenomena in Chilean culture.
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    The Geo-Social Model: A Transdisciplinary Approach to Flow-Type Landslide Analysis and Prevention
    (2021) Acuna, Valentina; Roldan, Francisca; Tironi, Manuel; Juzam, Leila
    Landslide disaster risks increase worldwide, particularly in urban areas. To design and implement more effective and democratic risk reduction programs, calls for transdisciplinary approaches have recently increased. However, little attention has been paid to the actual articulation of transdisciplinary methods and their associated challenges. To fill this gap, we draw on the case of the 1993 Quebrada de Macul disaster, Chile, to propose what we label as the Geo-Social Model. This experimental methodology aims at integrating recursive interactions between geological and social factors configuring landslide for more robust and inclusive analyses and interventions. It builds upon three analytical blocks or site-specific environments in constant co-determination: (1) The geology and geomorphology of the study area; (2) the built environment, encompassing infrastructural, urban, and planning conditions; and (3) the sociocultural environment, which includes community memory, risk perceptions, and territorial organizing. Our results are summarized in a geo-social map that systematizes the complex interactions between the three environments that facilitated the Quebrada de Macul flow-type landslide. While our results are specific to this event, we argue that the Geo-Social Model can be applied to other territories. In our conclusions, we suggest, first, that landslides in urban contexts are often the result of anthropogenic disruptions of natural balances and systems, often related to the lack of place-sensitive urban planning. Second, that transdisciplinary approaches are critical for sustaining robust and politically effective landslide risk prevention plans. Finally, that inter- and trans-disciplinary approaches to landslide risk prevention need to be integrated into municipal-level planning for a better understanding of-and prevention of-socio-natural hazards.