Abstract

During the last decade, the notion of sacrifice zones has become a relevant signifier in socio-environmental discourses and mobilization dynamics, critical of neoliberal development models in South America and particularly in Chile. Despite its growing relevance in public debate, there is a lack of theoretical problematization of the phenomenon in its sociopolitical, spatial and historical dimensions. In such direction, we seek to rethink sacrifice zones from spatial justice theoretical repertoire, through an approach that articulates different temporalities transcending short-term analysis. Based on the study of five emblematic cases of Sacrifice Zones in Chile, we examine the political problematization during the last decade, which converged in a constitutional process signed by the transversal character of environmental issues and by the centrality of the critique of sacrificial development.