Territorial integration under scrutiny
Spatial justice in the development of remote areas
Rapa Nui, Aysén, and Cape Horn, in Chile, are remote areas, yet they differ from one another in terms of their forms of governance, their views on remoteness, and the role of state institutions. The project assesses these territories’ development expectations and their alignment with centrally defined territorial integration initiatives, highlighting the inequities and incompatibilities that arise from an approach that prioritizes national-level objectives over locally developed assessments.
Project details
Conicyt/Fondecyt/3170740
Project duration: 2017-2020
Principal Investigator: Álvaro Román
Sponsoring Researcher: Alejandro Salazar
Institutions: Centre for Regional Development and Public Policies Studies, University of Los Lagos; Institute of Geography, Pontifical Catholic University of Chile
Background
Remoteness is often approached from a negative view which poses it as a difficulty even before acknowledging specificities and particularities implied by this condition. It is about territories in which we can find unique cultures, or largely undisturbed natural surroundings, or they can be attractive precisely because they provide experiences of peace and calm, inexistent in highly connected places. However, efforts for territorial integration tend to emphasize homogenisation of living conditions through road infrastructure, services and localisation of productive activities. Chile has been an example for this. Its complex geography is characterised by areas that lag behind the economic growth of central regions. Hence the intention to promote economic growth’s diffusion into these territories. Nonetheless, not always this process responds to expectations of those who live there because integration into the rest of the country is often decided using criteria that are either centralised or fail to adequately weigh the specificities of these places.
Chilean experience of integration to global economy has intensified this scenario risking the exacerbation of territorial and social inequalities. In principle, this is not problematic in itself, insofar as it simply reflects legitimate territorial heterogeneity. It becomes a problem, however, when these inequalities are compounded by inequities that affect the exercise of rights for those living in remote areas. Economic opening has been related to deregulation at local level, key for facilitating the incorporation into transnational value chains. Nonetheless, market corrective action is weak. Thus, economic territorial integration results in the imposition of development criteria not necessarily related to the expectations of those living in remoteness.
The complexity of this phenomenon is greater if we consider that statism also does not represent a solution, especially in cases in which remote territories are influenced by a strong identity or an articulated push for autonomy. The notion of spatial justice opens a debate on the recognition of territorial rights in two levels: one on subjects as bearers of rights and other on the State as the guarantor of rights. Definitions of democracy and political institutionality, local expectations and paradigms and criteria on decisions with territorial scope taken by actors related to a centralised State apparatus all play a role in this discussion. Then, the proposal is to test the approach of territorial integration against the development of remote areas through spatial justice views.
Research problem
The main goal of this project is to understand the expectations of development found in remote areas in Chile. A qualitative design was applied to collect notions of development, to embrace decisional structures with a territorial scope, and the mechanisms of incorporation or rejection of specific notions of development.
It involved defining a trajectory of remoteness for three municipalities as study cases: Rapa Nui, Aysén and Cape Horn. Rapa Nui represents a case of remoteness accompanied by a clearly articulated autonomic claim based on ethnic identity. Aysén is an example of remoteness positively valued by its inhabitants, especially in coastal areas, forcing a distinction between connectivity and provision of public services in terms of integration. Cape Horn is heavily dependent on Navy presence, which is central in its everyday exercise of national sovereignty.
Remotas 