Large hydroelectric projects in the Amazon: from depoliticization to repoliticization and contestation of knowledge

Abstract

This article aims to discuss the construction of large hydroelectric projects in the Brazilian Amazon, based on the depoliticization strategies used for their technical-scientific treatment and the process of contesting knowledge based on the social mobilization contrary to these projects. Hydroelectricity has been seen in recent years as a clean and renewable alternative for energy supply in the face of climate change, justifying its resumption in the Amazon Basin and omitting its social and environmental impacts. Depoliticization strategies aim to mobilize knowledge so that hydroelectric infrastructures are understood from a technical approach, which agrees with the idea of infallible projects of modern engineering that ignores risks associated with their construction and operation. These projects affect social groups unequally, the most impacted are those who are forced to move and have their ways of life altered. Thus, the depoliticization strategies employed for the construction of the Santo Antônio, Jirau and Belo Monte plants are analyzed, as well as the social mobilization contrary to the projects as a means of repoliticizing the issue of large hydroelectric plants, demonstrating the contestation of knowledge in this arena.

Keywords

• bacia amazônica brasileira
• despolitização
• produção de ignorância