Abstract

This article analyses from political ecology the hegemonic and counter-hegemonic discourses about dams and the political-ecological dynamics in which dams are insert. To do that, the case of the HidroAysén project in Chilean Patagonia and the dam El Zapotillo in Jalisco state in Mexico are analysed. In the conclusion, both cases are compare and it is argue that the construction of dams is linked to political, class, race and spatial allocation inequalities, which generate more social, material and symbolic exclusions.