Abstract

In this article, we analyse the Environmental and Social Recovery Plans developed by the Chilean government in the cities known as sacrificial zones. Based on the contributions from environmental justice and the debates regarding participation and governance that this policy involves, we realize the contradictions and difficulties for the transformation of the territories damaged by the intensification of extractive activities, mainly mining and energy. Conclusions show how these limitations and failures of environmental policy are related to the dissociation of the environmental and social, -through the undervaluation of the latter-; the instrumental understanding of participation as a techno-bureaucratic tool for state purposes; and the tensions generated by a neoliberal model of environmental governance. Finally, we propose the need to think about the concept of a sacrifice zone linked to socioenvironmental recovery as a proposal from the territories for the transition to recovery zones.