Description
Violence over natural resources and unrest fuelled by ecological crises or climate change suggest a permeable and interactive relationship between environmental conditions and internal conflicts. However, political science and international relations literature often omits the presence of social and symbolic processes in the interactions between humans and nature. Environmental studies acknowledge such a complex and politically contingent relation and the various ecological interpretations that societies generate.
This paper suggests bridging those approaches and offers a novel perspective on environmental conflicts. I study how competing constructions of environmental issues permeate the power structures of internal political contention. Critical environmental discourse analysis shows how politicising an ecological issue through social justice and rights discourse can affect a conflict’s power balance. Environmental discourse produces truths about the environment. Manifesting these truths allows contention actors to exploit political opportunities, set themselves as legitimate stakeholders, strive for internal mobilisation, and seek external support to alter the conflict’s power dynamics.
This framework moves towards analyses of environmental knowledge systems and their expressions. It challenges essentialist examinations of socioecological phenomena. The guerra del agua in Cochabamba (Bolivia) illustrates the role discursive mechanisms can play to mobilise action over protecting natural resources.
