The productivity of environmental conflicts and their contribution to social innovation

Abstract

Environmental conflicts are social and political disputes around the appropriation, production, distribution and management of natural resources. These events put in question the power relations that imply the preferential use that some actors make of these resources at the expense of others. This evolution opens discussions regarding environmental impacts and allows a redefinition of public problems under new economic, social and cultural lens. In this article we propose that environmental conflicts lead to the production of knowledge that nurtures different processes of social innovation. To develop our argument, we present a theoretical-methodological perspective for the study of the productivity (effects) of environmental conflicts and we show examples to understand its implications for social innovation along three dimensions: legal, territorial and political-institutional.