Patagonia Sin Represas: How an Environmental Campaign Transformed Power Landscapes in Chile

Abstract

After a long period of silence, thousands of Chileans took to the streets in 2011 to protest against the approval of HidroAysen, a hydroelectric dam complex proposed for Chilean Patagonia. Such a citizen movement had not taken place since mobilisations in the 1980s against General Pinochet’s dictatorship. This dissertation follows the controversy surrounding these dams, focusing on the role of Patagonia Sin Represas (Patagonia Without Dams, PWD), a campaign organised to oppose HidroAysen. The controversy over the damming of Chilean Patagonia has allowed for the enrichment of Chilean politics; PWD has turned these dams into matters of concern, linking them with questions of democracy, decentralisation, and self-determination. In the process, other issues have been opened up for debate, such as Patagonia, energy, and the huemul (Patagonian deer). These issues have shaped and have been shaped by PWD in specific ways through a process of political intensification and research escalation. The dissertation shows how PWD brought together various organisations and locations in a way not seen before in an environmental movement in Chile, exploring the discourses and practices that have allowed for the building of a powerful assemblage of people, organisations, and things not restricted to a specific location (multi-scalar), and that despite its heterogeneity has been able to maintain coherence and effectiveness over time and space. Key to the endeavour has been Patagonia and what it means as a place and territory, as well as for the community life project known as “Aysen Life Reserve”. Patagonia has had the power to attract and enchant people in Chile and abroad. It needed humans to become such a territory, at the same time than humans needed Patagonia to produce PWD and sustain a community life project.