Seminar: "Science and Environment in Chile: The Politics of Expert Advice in a Neoliberal Democracy", by Javiera Barandiarán

Title: "Science and Environment in Chile: The Politics of Expert Advice in a Neoliberal Democracy"

Speaker: Javiera Barandiarán, Assistant Professor Department of Global Studies University of California, Santa Barbara

Date: Wednesday 23rd May 2018

Time: From 15 to 17h

Venue: Rooms Z/22 and Z/23

 

Chile presents a seemingly peculiar case of a modern state that at the turn of the twenty-first century does not see a need to invest in science nor cultivate scientific advice as a strategic ally of the state. I explain this phenomenon by focusing on a series of environmental conflicts experienced in Chile after it transitioned from dictatorship to democracy, in which the state tried to act as a “neutral broker” rather than the protector of the common good. I argue that this shift in the role of the state—occurring in other countries as well—is driven in part by the political ideology of neoliberalism, which favors market mechanisms and private initiatives over the actions of state agencies. Chile has not invested in environmental science labs, state agencies with in-house capacities, or an ancillary network of trusted scientific advisers—despite the growing complexity of environmental problems and increasing popular demand for more active environmental stewardship. Unlike a high modernist “empire” state with the scientific and technical capacity to undertake large-scale projects, Chile’s model has been that of an “umpire” state that purchases scientific advice from markets.

I will describe Chile’s market for scientific knowledge and its consequences for democratic governance, illustrated with examples from four environmental crises that shook citizens’ trust in government: the near-collapse of the farmed salmon industry when an epidemic killed millions of fish; pollution from a paper and pulp mill that killed off or forced out thousands of black-neck swans; a gold mine that threatened three glaciers; and five controversial mega-dams in Patagonia. The presentation will draw from material covered in my forthcoming book with MIT Press, Science and Environment in Chile (2018).

Javiera Barandiarán is Assistant Professor in Global Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her research examines the intersections between science, environment and development in Latin America. Barandiarán completed her Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley in Environmental Science, Policy and Management. She holds a Masters in Public Policy, also from Berkeley. Her research has been awarded support from the Mellon Foundation, Social Science Research Council, the National Science Foundation, and has been published in Science as Culture, Minerva, Science and Public Policy, Latin American Research Review, among other venues. Her first book, Science and Environment in Chile: the Politics of Expert Advice in a Neoliberal Democracy will be published in July 2018 by MIT Press.