Premium
Transgenic‐free territories in Costa Rica: Networks, place, and the politics of life
Author(s) -
PEARSON THOMAS W.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
american ethnologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.875
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1548-1425
pISSN - 0094-0496
DOI - 10.1111/j.1548-1425.2011.01350.x
Subject(s) - politics , sovereignty , environmentalism , sociology , capital (architecture) , globalization , ethnography , political science , environmental ethics , geography , law , anthropology , archaeology , philosophy
Several municipalities across Costa Rica have adopted “transgenic‐free territory” ordinances, joining similar communities worldwide in declaring themselves free from genetically engineered organisms such as transgenic seeds. Through ethnography of antitransgenic activism, I describe the rise of transgenic‐free territories to examine the relationship between transnational activist networks and place‐based struggles. I suggest that activist networks and the transgenic‐free territory designation respond to processes of globalization that have reorganized the material and discursive relations between capital and nature, and I show why such territories have gained significance as a defense of sovereignty, place, and even life itself. [ transnational activist networks, nature, life, place, environmentalism, Costa Rica ]