Abstract

This article analyzes territorialities related to natural gas extraction in Peru and Bolivia. Territorialities are defined as practices which different social groups take for controlling places because they expect to modify, refuse or reach benefits of the natural gas productive network. Such definition is grounded on the answers of those groups which are triggered by the territorial embeddedness of productive networks. Those answers define a complex network of interlinked territories that is global in his form but based on a variegated scheme of political and social structures. Specifically, this work analyzes national and sub-national territorialities in Peru and Bolivia through a comparative perspective. Those cases show that the different orientations and strategies which different social groups take at different levels are heterogeneous. However, the main purposes of those groups are to increase control over natural gas rent and promote energetic integration. Finally, the main conclusions is that is critical to understand in which extent those territorialities might be a chance for development.