Adriana Angela Suarez Delucchi | Universidad Católica de Temuco (original) (raw)

Papers by Adriana Angela Suarez Delucchi

The Chilean Constitutional Process Narrated Through a Spiral, 2024

Building on an intertwined spatiotemporal weaving of reckoning-repairingreworlding, this article ... more Building on an intertwined spatiotemporal weaving of reckoning-repairingreworlding, this article analyses the constitutional process experienced in Chile between 2019-2023. Inspired by the sociology of image as a methodological tool and following a narrative that takes the shape of a spiral, we examine a series of photographs representing different layers in this ongoing process. In October 2019, the largest demonstrations in Chile's history sparked long-brewing demands for social and ecological transformation. The unsustainable pressure pushed political parties to call for a constitutional referendum where the population overwhelmingly voted to overturn the charter inherited from Augusto Pinochet's regime, and so the process of drafting a new text began. Following the rejection of two drafts, the constitutional process is, for now, closed. Yet, we claim that embracing a failure narrative is not only futile, but misleading, and we propose to see these events in terms of their potential for conceptualising and enacting transformative futures. Drawing on decolonial, anticolonial, and Indigenous scholarship, this essay focuses mainly on 2019's uprising and the first constitutional process (2021-2022) examining demands for Indigenous transformation-and the possibilities this case offers resistance movements elsewhere and "elsewhen."

Journal of Rural Studies

Agri-environmental projects have been portrayed as tools for climate change adaptation and mitiga... more Agri-environmental projects have been portrayed as tools for climate change adaptation and mitigation and to overcome processes of deforestation, soil erosion, issues of water availability, and biodiversity loss. This paper is concerned with the social organisation of knowledge around agri-environmental projects offered to farmers in the department of Caquetá in Colombia. Using Institutional Ethnography (IE), we start with the experiences and work practices of small farmers or campesinos to explore how these are coordinated with the work of other people also involved in the organisation of agri-environmental projects. We identified the ideological code of the 'good producer' and argue agri-environmental projects are part of the wider 'project economy'; an institution that shapes campesinos' practices. Our data shows that what is portrayed as solutions to achieve sustainable livestock, poverty reduction, and the halting of deforestation, end up eroding the trust and willingness to cooperate of those whose work is crucial to achieve the conservation goals these projects claim to promote. Our research contributes to the growing body of social studies about agrienvironmental systems and explains how such interventions reinforce neoliberal agendas that risk replicating modernising logics of productivity, accountability, and efficiency.

Power, Violence and Justice: Reflections, Responses and Responsibilities, Feb 25, 2021

Just what is institutional ethnography? How can young scholars understand its premise, promise, a... more Just what is institutional ethnography? How can young scholars understand its premise, promise, and potential for changing the conditions of our lives? And how can we, as scholars well-acquainted with IE, successfully introduce students to IE? This panel invites participation from IE scholars to debate and consider the foundations of institutional ethnography as a method for inquiry and how to invite students and junior scholars to take up that legacy. The goal of this panel is to bring what happens as murmurs, quiet unshared confusions and shy questions to the limelight to help build up the practice of IE. Understanding IE as a conceptual framework for inquiry can be daunting. This is not least a due to a socialization into sociology as a social science, which emphasizes positivist understandings of the social world, and the presentation of qualitative research as intended to « build theory. Collectively, trans-generationally, trans-continentally and grounded in our own experiences, this panel will address the the following questions: How can young scholars pause the impulse for theory-based thinking? How can we avoid using concepts such as “justice”, “racism” or « resistance » without explaining how they actually work? How can IE contribute to our disciplines and universities without compromising its foundations as a method for inquiry and a sociology in itself?

International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 2021

Institutional Ethnography in the Nordic Region, 2019

Journal of Organizational Ethnography, 2018

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to problematise the idea of “at-home ethnography” and to exp... more Purpose The purpose of this paper is to problematise the idea of “at-home ethnography” and to expand knowledge about insider/outsider distinctions by using insights from institutional ethnography (IE). It also examines the strengths and challenges of “returning” researchers recognising their unique position in overcoming these binaries. Design/methodology/approach IE is the method the researcher used to explore community-based water management in rural Chile. The researcher is interested in learning from rural drinking water organisations to understand the way in which their knowledge is organised. The data presented derived from field notes of participant observation and the researcher’s diary. Findings The notion of “at-home ethnography” fell short when reflecting on the researcher’s positions and experiences in the field. This is especially true when researchers return to their countries to carry out fieldwork. The negotiation of boundaries, codes and feelings requires the resear...

The Wetland Book, 2016

Since the 1990s, Chile has experienced an accelerated pace of economic development that has been ... more Since the 1990s, Chile has experienced an accelerated pace of economic development that has been mainly based on the exploitation of its natural resources. The dependence on raw materials and an accelerated economic growth has increased the threats imposed to biodiversity, ecosystems and the livelihoods of indigenous and local communities that live upon them. This chapter outlines the geographic distribution of wetlands in Chile and the national and regional efforts to protect and manage these ecosystems. Important challenges remain in order to achieve effective wetland conservation, especially in terms of enabling an effective participation of local communities in natural resources management.

The Chilean Constitutional Convention: An Exercise for the Pluriverse, 2024

Neoliberal principles were codified in a constitution and implemented during a right-wing militar... more Neoliberal principles were codified in a constitution and implemented during a right-wing military dictatorship (1973-1990) in Chile producing important social inequalities, as well as cultural and ecological destruction. Resistance against the arrangements inherited from that period and deepened thereafter has been paramount to recent politics. In October 2019, considerable street protests were institutionally channeled into a constitutional process where a referendum was mandated to replace the dictatorship's constitution. There were two attempts to write a new charter: one under a Constitutional Convention that took a decolonial character, and a second one dominated by a far-right council. Drawing on Loughlin's "constitutional imagination," the article poses that the Convention was a world-making exercise where social movements, independent candidates, Indigenous representatives, and their allies engaged in efforts for designing a pluriverse where many worlds could fit. I claim the Convention was a space where utopia and ideology met allowing for different worlds to work together for the first time in the political arena creating an incipient intercultural politics. As a text with world-making capacity, the draft from the Convention, although rejected in 2022, materializes a process from which stronger intersectional solidarity among feminist, Indigenous, and ecological movements should be forged. Au Chili, les principes néolibéraux ont été codifiés dans une constitution et mis en application durant une dictature militaire de droite (1973-1990). Ils ont généré des inégalités sociales importantes, mais aussi une destruction culturelle et écologique. Récemment, la résistance à l'égard des arrangements hérités de cette période, et renforcés par la suite, joue un rôle crucial en politique. En octobre 2019, d'importantes manifestations dans les rues ont été canalisées de façon institutionnelle dans un processus constitutionnel qui incluait un référendum exigeant le remplacement de la constitution de la dictature. Deux tentatives de rédaction d'une nouvelle charte ont vu le jour : l'une dans le cadre d'une convention constitutionnelle qui a revêtu un caractère décolonial; l'autre dominée par un conseil d'extrême droite. En se fondant sur l'imagination constitutionnelle de Martin Loughlin, l'article propose que la convention relevait d'un exercice de création du monde : les mouvements sociaux, les candidats indépendants, les représentants de peuples indigènes et leurs alliés se sont efforcés de concevoir un plurivers dans lequel de nombreux mondes pouvaient coexister. J'affirme que la convention constituait un lieu de rencontre entre utopie et idéologie qui permettait à différents mondes de collaborer pour la première fois sur la scène politique, et d'esquisser une politique interculturelle. En tant que texte capable de créer un monde, la version préliminaire de la convention, bien que rejetée en 2022, matérialise un processus de renforcement de la solidarité intersectionnelle entre les mouvements féministes, indigènes et écologiques. Los principios neoliberales fueron codificados en una constitución e implementados durante una dictadura militar de derecha (1973-1990) que tuvo lugar en Chile, y que conllevó importantes desigualdades sociales, así como destrucción cultural y ecológica. La resistencia contra aquellos acuerdos, heredados de aquel período y que se fueron profundizando a partir de entonces, ha resultado primordial para la política reciente. En octubre de 2019, se canalizaron institucionalmente un número considerable de protestas callejeras dentro de un proceso constitucional en el marco del cual se celebró un referéndum con el fin de sustituir la constitución de los tiempos de la dictadura. Hubo dos intentos de redactar una nueva carta: uno bajo una Convención Constitucional que asumió un carácter decolonial, y un segundo dominado por un Consejo de extrema derecha. El artículo plantea, basándose en la "imaginación constitucional" de Loughlin, que la Convención fue un ejercicio de creación de mundos en el que los movimientos sociales, los candidatos independientes, los representantes indígenas y sus aliados se implicaron en realizar esfuerzos con el fin de diseñar un pluriverso en el que pudieran caber muchos mundos. Afirmamos que la Convención fue un espacio donde la utopía y la ideología se encontraron, permitiendo que mundos diferentes trabajaran juntos por primera vez en el ámbito político, creando, así, una incipiente política intercultural. El borrador de esta Convención, aunque fue rechazado en 2022, materializa, por su condición de texto con capacidad de construir mundos, un proceso a partir del cual se debe forjar una solidaridad interseccional más fuerte entre los movimientos feministas, indígenas y ecologistas.

PhD Thesis, 2020

This thesis explores the organisation of rural water delivery in Chile. Specifically, it examines... more This thesis explores the organisation of rural water delivery in Chile. Specifically, it examines the Chilean government's Ministry of Public Works programme, Agua Potable Rural (APR), through the experiences of rural people's negotiated access to drinking water, their becoming members of an APR organisation, and, ultimately how their access to drinking water is institutionally mediated. As such, this dissertation is an inquiry into the organisation of community water management in rural Chile and its relation to the wider neoliberal context of water management in the country.

Institutional Ethnography in the Nordic Region, 2022

Why should geographers consider the contributions of institutional ethnography (IE) and contempla... more Why should geographers consider the contributions of institutional ethnography (IE) and contemplate reading this book? As a geographer, IE has forever changed the way I view the world, and particularly the field of environmental management, providing a concrete method to explore institutions from the bottom up, with the aim to improve them so they can better respond to the needs of communities and their territories. I have used this approach to explore the institution of water management in Chile (Suarez Delucchi Citation2018, Citation2020), and more recently, to look at climate change adaptation and mitigation initiatives offered to small-scale farmers in the Colombian Amazon (Suarez Delucchi et al. Citation2021). The approach has the capacity to deal well with complexity, mapping connections across scales, and making visible what is institutionally rendered invisible. This is something researchers concerned with natural resources management, the neoliberalization of nature, and (feminist) political ecology will find beneficial and eye-opening.

"At-home ethnography" Insider, outsider and social relations in rural drinking water management in Chile, 2018

Purpose-The purpose of this paper is to problematise the idea of "at-home ethnography" and to exp... more Purpose-The purpose of this paper is to problematise the idea of "at-home ethnography" and to expand knowledge about insider/outsider distinctions by using insights from institutional ethnography (IE). It also examines the strengths and challenges of "returning" researchers recognising their unique position in overcoming these binaries. Design/methodology/approach-IE is the method the researcher used to explore community-based water management in rural Chile. The researcher is interested in learning from rural drinking water organisations to understand the way in which their knowledge is organised. The data presented derived from field notes of participant observation and the researcher's diary. Findings-The notion of "at-home ethnography" fell short when reflecting on the researcher's positions and experiences in the field. This is especially true when researchers return to their countries to carry out fieldwork. The negotiation of boundaries, codes and feelings requires the researcher to appreciate the complex relationships surrounding ethnographic work, in order to explore how community-based water management is done in the local setting, without forgetting where the setting is embedded. Originality/value-Unique insights are offered into the advantages and tensions of conducting fieldwork "at home" when the researcher has lived "abroad" for an extended time. A critique and contribution to "at-home ethnography" is offered from an IE perspective.

Becoming a ‘good producer’ in the agri-environmental project economy, 2022

Unpacking 'community water management' in rural Chile: An institutional ethnography, 2024

This article contributes to scholarship on the political ecology of drinking water, water commodi... more This article contributes to scholarship on the political ecology of drinking water, water commodification, and its social and environmental effects by looking at Chile’s Rural Drinking Water (Agua Potable Rural or APR) program. The APR program was created in 1964 to deliver drinking water to rural populations. I explore the actions a group of people undertake to secure drinking water in rural Northern Chile, an area experiencing a decade-long drought. I map how their efforts in securing drinking water coordinate with those of others at different institutional levels. This research relies on Dorothy Smith’s Institutional Ethnography (IE), a bottom-up feminist sociology explaining how the social world is organised through the active work of people whose doings are coordinated through texts, language, and discourse. Using methodological devices such as the construction of ‘facts’ and ‘ideological codes’ this research shows how the categories of ‘water rights’, and ‘vulnerability’ are essential in ruling differential access to drinking water. Thus, the research unpacks the social organisation of ‘community water management’ which although discursively based on mutual aid and solidarity, is part of the larger neoliberal institution governing access to water in the country. This research expands knowledge about the institutional mechanisms preventing rural people from accessing a basic human right, going beyond the naming of phenomena as ‘commodification’ or ‘neoliberalisation’ to explaining how these are organised and implemented, through texts and people’s work, with detrimental effects for communities and their environments. Thus, it contributes to institutional transformation efforts towards sustainable and fair water allocation.

Between orthodoxy and openness, 2023