Interdependent Inequalities in Latin America: Structures and Negotiations - desiguALdades.net (Phase 2)

The Network on Interdependent Inequalities in Latin America, desiguALdades.net (external link, opens in a new window), is an international, interdisciplinary, and multi-institutional research network. It is financed since 2009 by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research in its funding line on area studies. The second phase (01/05/14-30/04/16) of the network is titled, “Interdependent inequalities in Latin America: Structures and negotiations”.

 

DesiguALdades.net deals with inequalities in Latin America that are characterized by rising global interconnections. The network consists of experts on inequality working in Universities and non-university institutions in Latin America, North America and Europe. Thereby it aims at connecting area studies with the study of inequality in various disciplinary fields. Research that so far has been carried out separately is brought together. In addition, it fosters transatlantic scholarly exchange.

 

The first phase of the project (2009-2014) addressed the global restructuring and the multidimensionality of social inequalities in Latin America. The Ibero-American Institute coordinated the research dimension on socio-ecological inequalities in Latin America. This permitted linking debates from environmental research in the social sciences (in particular political ecology) with inequality research. In addition, the multidimensionality of social inequalities (including economic, political and cultural dimensions) was shown. On the basis of analyzing a broad spectrum of phenomena regarding the global valorization of land and natural resources in Latin America (agribusiness, climate change, mining, global tourism, etc.) transregional interdependencies were emphasized. Central topics were inequalities in access to and control of natural resources as well as the unequal distribution of gains, costs and risks.

In the second phase of the research network (2014-2016) the focus is on the discrepancies between the global configurations of social inequalities and the negotiation of ways of influencing inequalities that primarily take place in national arenas.

The Ibero-American Institute coordinates two complementary main tasks. The first is a synthesis publication on the global valorization of nature as discussed in the network with the goal of highlighting the specificities of socio-ecological inequalities. It focuses on the question of how heterogeneous legal frameworks and sectorial politics with different goals allow or constrain the embedding of resource use with global production chains. Typical arenas in which socio-ecological conflicts are negotiated will be identified. 

 

The second central task is an in-depth study of the global extractive value chains and social inequalities as exemplified by lithium mining in Chile and Argentina will be carried out. The extraction and export of natural resources such as minerals have played an important role in the economic growth of various Latin American countries in recent years. But these bring forth contradictory nature-society relations with global implications. For example, the exploitation of lithium that is triggered by the development of sustainable lifestyles and ‘green technology’ in the Global North (e.g. transformation of energy matrix and mobility systems) produces costs and risks for the local populations living around the salt lakes.