What is the bioeconomy and how does the bioeconomy relate to socio-ecological inequalities? With a focus on biomass sourcing, production and bioenergy, this chapter aims to answer these two questions with the whole book in mind. First, we introduce the conceptual, geographical and methodological focus of the volume. Drawing on political ecology and world systems theory, we develop an analytical lens for the study of global socio-ecological inequalities. Against this background, we sketch out the main findings of the contributions, which focus on conceptual questions, bioeconomy policies and agendas in different countries, as well as the reconfigurations and continuities of socio-ecological inequalities in and beyond the agrarian sector from the local to the global level. The contributions offer insights into different countries in South America, Southeast Asia and Europe as well as into the interrelations between different countries and regions. Finally, the outlook identifies and discusses four areas of further research.
Bioeconomy is a concept that has been developed in the OECD and is prominently discussed in Europe and industrialized countries. Over the years, Argentina has begun appropriating and developing its own interpretation of the concept, which has a clear agro-industrial and bio-technological focus. In Argentina, bioeconomy is framed as further intensification of agro-industrial production—including GMOs and the immense use of pesticides—combined with strengthening industrial upgrading. The same people and institutions that have supported soybean expansion over the last decades also advocate bioeconomy. Nevertheless, Argentina’s agricultural policies have been contested for several years; this particularly applies to the expansion of soybean monocultures and the related use of pesticides. Referring to the debate on agrarian extractivism, this chapter argues that Argentina’s focus within the bioeconomy debate risks deepening the extractivist tendency within the dominant form of agriculture and continuing the exclusion of peasants, indigenous groups and environmental concerns.
El artículo se propone indagar en las innovaciones ocurridas en el sector de la bioenergía en Argentina, a fin de analizar su contribución a la modernización del agro y a la expansión del régimen de acumulación, su relación con los impactos territoriales/socioambientales y las contradicciones que genera. Con foco en casos particulares, se consideran innovaciones y estrategias empresariales en el sector de la bioenergía, mediante el análisis del discurso. Se indaga en las concepciones de sustentabilidad, en el contexto del relato de modernización ecológica, se identifican sus argumentos estructurantes, se reconstruye su trama conceptual y las narrativas asociadas, y se exploran sus fisuras, contradicciones y silencios. Se reflexiona sobre el sentido que asumen estas propuestas de innovación en el sector de la bioenergía en Argentina, observándolas como mecanismos que contribuyen al acaparamiento verde, dado que la apelación a lo ambiental sirve de excusa para la generación de nuevos mercados y la expansión del capital.
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