Skip to Main Content
 

Global Search Box

 
 
 
 

Files

File List


Dissertation_Sylvander.pdf (5.73 MB)

ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

Making Spaces of Difference: Spatially Exclusionary Policies in Resolving Natural Resource and Territorial Conflicts in the Bosawas Biosphere Reserve, Nicaragua

Sylvander, Nora T
http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7410-8266
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1556459239342881

Abstract Details

2019, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Geography.
Territorial conflicts between indigenous people and settlers—labeled as non-indigenous “mestizo” migrants—appear to be intensifying across Latin America’s resource-rich frontiers, and they are garnering increasing attention from scholars and the media alike. These conflicts are seen as intimately related to indigenous territorial struggles, and mestizo migrants are widely blamed for colonizing indigenous lands and destroying pristine environments, traditionally conserved by indigenous communities. Thus, it is perhaps not a surprise that the defense of these landscapes—coded simultaneously as indigenous and conservation spaces—hinges on the spatial and political exclusion of mestizos. An example of such exclusionary tactics is Nicaragua’s “saneamiento,” which is typically understood as the removal of unlawful mestizo settlers from indigenous territories, and which is generally portrayed as an emancipatory tactic aimed at strengthening indigenous territorial security. Yet, drawing on my ethnographic fieldwork in the indigenous Mayangna Sauni Bas territory in Nicaragua’s Bosawas Biosphere Reserve, as well as literatures in political ecology and cultural politics, I come to a very different conclusion: saneamiento – when understood as the removal of mestizo settlers without addressing the broader political-economic processes and drivers of colonization – is unlikely to improve long-term indigenous territorial security or lead to positive environmental conservation outcomes. Instead, it may exacerbate the violence occurring in these contested frontiers. My qualitative and quantitative data show that this is because saneamiento is an instance of “difference-making,” based on racialized assumptions about identity and belonging. It 1) discursively presents mestizos and indigenous people as irreconcilably opposed, conditioning the spatial inclusion of one category of person on the exclusion of the other; 2) portrays mestizos as a monolithic group, where mestizo peasants become bundled together with more powerful “mestizos” that, in fact, are often responsible for their initial displacement, including cattle ranchers, land speculators, and politicians; and 3) casts mestizos as inherently out-of-place within spaces of indigeneity and conservation. At the same time, saneamiento assumes that territorial conflicts are a local problem requiring local solutions, which obscures the broader political-economic and institutional structures at work. It follows that saneamiento is likely to disproportionally target the poorest mestizo peasants, while leaving the structures and actors that facilitate colonization relatively intact. Ultimately, as I show, saneamiento has very little to do with the Nicaraguan state’s aspiration to improve indigenous territorial security. Instead, it guarantees the continued access of the state to natural resources in indigenous territories. Paradoxically, saneamiento, then, may further enable state territorialization in and control over these territories, particularly as they coincide with protected areas. There is a lot at stake in analyzing “inter-ethnic” territorial conflicts and their possible solutions in Latin America. Nicaragua is one of the first countries to implement saneamiento in its current form, and as the conflicts increase throughout Latin America, there is a lot of interest in seeing how the process unfolds. My dissertation, then, offers a novel analysis of the premises of saneamiento-style policies that are based on spatial and political exclusion of certain ethnic categories. In the process, I aim to highlight the lived experiences and identities particularly within the assumed mestizo category, which have received little attention to date in the cultural politics/political ecology literature.
Kendra McSweeney, Dr. (Advisor)
Kenneth Madsen, Dr. (Committee Member)
Becky Mansfield, Dr. (Committee Member)
244 p.
Geography
Territorial conflicts, Environmental conservation discourses, Mestizo identity, Central America, Nicaragua

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Sylvander, N. T. (2019). Making Spaces of Difference: Spatially Exclusionary Policies in Resolving Natural Resource and Territorial Conflicts in the Bosawas Biosphere Reserve, Nicaragua [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1556459239342881

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Sylvander, Nora. Making Spaces of Difference: Spatially Exclusionary Policies in Resolving Natural Resource and Territorial Conflicts in the Bosawas Biosphere Reserve, Nicaragua. 2019. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1556459239342881.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Sylvander, Nora. "Making Spaces of Difference: Spatially Exclusionary Policies in Resolving Natural Resource and Territorial Conflicts in the Bosawas Biosphere Reserve, Nicaragua." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2019. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1556459239342881

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1556459239342881
60
© 2019, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.