Environmental Judicialization and scales in tension: The case of the cyanide water spill at the Veladero mine in San Juan, Argentina

Disputes over the multiple scales of action and decision making are one of the main characteristics of environmental problems. This multiscalarity manifests itself in various aspects, such as the distribution of institutional responsibilities and powers, the strategies of actors, and the distributio...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Christel, Lucas
Format: Online
Language:spa
Published: Centro de Estudios Avanzados 2024
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Online Access:https://revistas.unc.edu.ar/index.php/restudios/article/view/44521
Description
Summary:Disputes over the multiple scales of action and decision making are one of the main characteristics of environmental problems. This multiscalarity manifests itself in various aspects, such as the distribution of institutional responsibilities and powers, the strategies of actors, and the distribution of benefits or damages resulting from the exploitation of the environment. In federal systems, scale dynamics are further complicated by the fact that the subnational level usually has certain prerogatives over environmental issues. In particular, the provincial domain over natural resources and the environmen tal sphere is a very characteristic feature of Argentine federalism. This paper analyzes the game of scales triggered by the judicialization strategies of a specific episode of environmental conflict in a federal context: The cyanide water spills at the Veladero mine in the province of San Juan, Argentina, in 2015, 2016 and 2017. It is argued here that the judicialization strategies deployed by environmental incidents in a federal system combine bottom-up, top-down, and freezing movements, triggering a game of non-linear, uncertain, and eminently unequal scales.