The Social Life of Regions Salmon farming and the regionalization of development in Chilean Patagonia Gustavo Emilio Blanco Wells Thesis committee Thesis supervisor Prof.dr. L.E. Visser Professor of Rural Development Sociology Wageningen University Thesis co-supervisor Dr. A.M.G. Arce Associate Professor, Rural Development Sociology Group Wageningen University Other members Prof. J. Bengoa, Christian Humanism University, Santiago, Chile Dr. J.P. Johnsen, University of Tromsø, Norway Prof.dr. T. Marsden, Cardiff University, United Kingdom Prof.dr. ir. J.S.C. Wiskerke, Wageningen University This research was conducted under the auspices of the Graduate School CERES. The Social Life of Regions Salmon farming and the regionalization of development in Chilean Patagonia Gustavo Emilio Blanco Wells Thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of doctor at Wageningen University by the authority of the Rector Magnificus Prof. dr. M.J. Kropff, in the presence of the Thesis Committee appointed by the Doctorate Board to be defended in public on Tuesday 27 October 2009 at 11 AM in the Aula. Blanco Wells, Gustavo The Social Life of Regions: Salmon farming and the regionalization of development in Chilean Patagonia Thesis Wageningen University, Wageningen, NL (2009) With references, with summaries in English, Dutch and Spanish ISBN 978-90-8585-431-9 Table of Contents Acknowledgements xiii 1. The Social Life of Patagonia: How salmon farming contributes to the sites and practices of region-making 1 The case for studying salmon farming in the Chilean Patagonia 6 Salmon farming in Chile: the transit from success to uncertainty 7 Disembarking in Aysén 10 On theoretical interpretations: modes of ordering and modes of inquiring 12 Braiding three theoretical lines of thought 13 The regionalization of development 15 Development interventions and the changing boundaries of public and private 16 From actors to practice-oriented research 19 Organizing the book: A style of writing, a code for reading 23 Notes 25 2. An Ethnographic gaze at Methodology 29 On becoming a PhD and of PhD-making: Entering epistemic communities 30 Following tenuous clues 32 Approaching Actors 33 Battlefields of knowledge: moving beyond the ‘West’ and the ‘Rest’ 34 The research project in Mexico: an epistemic community in practice 35 De-constructing practices of intervention: opening the AOA black box 36 Dis-oriented Actors 37 Building a Research Project 42 At the encounter of the social: A post-fieldwork reading of methodology 46 Four methodological propositions and their theoretical consequences 46 First Proposition: At the crossroads of STS and Development Studies 47 Second Proposition: Methodology-epistemology 49 Third Proposition: Mapping out the promises of multi-sited ethnography 51 Fourth Proposition: The Region as social field 54 Notes 57 3. The City of the Caesars 59 Patagonia, in the beginning 60 Object of intervention One: In search of the Golden City of Patagonia 64 Object of intervention Two: Aysén’ birthday: Territory and settlement 67 Object of intervention Three: Pinochet’ Regional Reform: the dictator’s new road 71 Object of intervention Four: Clustering and zoning: a technocratic approach 75 The reinvention of Patagonia: Cultural turn or market-oriented opportunism? 82 Patagonia in the literature 83 Patagonia as a trademark 84 Patagonia as cultural identity 86 Conclusions: further implications on the relation Object-Region 87 vii Notes 88 4. Puerto Cisnes: Histories of resilience and integration 91 Meeting Don Luis and Doña Graciela 93 Los pioneros: following the footprints of the first settlers 94 The Peasant Cooperative and the sawmill project 105 Learning to fish: the boom of the southern hake 107 La carretera: the promises brought by the road 111 Salmon farming came to town 112 Epilogue: A 50 years old town 116 Time and rhythm in the creation of livelihoods 118 Notes 120 5. Salmon go to Chile: The technology of domestication and the domestication of technology 123 A brief history of salmonid species in Chile 124 From initiatives of ‘heroic individuals’ to governmental affairs 124 The scientific turn to salmon ranching 127 Women and fish: unknown stories at the dawn of aquaculture 129 Case 1: Doña Eugenia, the Japanese and a salmon farming experiment 130 Case 2: Doña Quina and the selection of the first fish farm site of Cisnes 133 A conservation paradox or a paradox to be conserved? A contemporary reading 135 How to think about processes and technologies of domestication 137 A critical assessment on perspectives of biological imperialism and bioinvasion 138 Co-evolutionary approaches 139 The symmetric constructivism of ANT 140 Affordances of interactions: an ecological psychology approach 141 What about the fish? 142 One family, various fish: a sociological typology of an alien fish 142 Farmed salmon (salmón de cultivo) 143 Escaped salmon (salmón escapado) 143 Caught and released trout or lucky fish (pesca con mosca) 144 “The naturals” (Salmoncitos, los naturales) 145 Wild salmon (salmón silvestre) 145 Cooked Salmon (cocina chilena del salmon) 145 From fish farming to fish framing 146 The technology of domestication and the domestication of technology 147 Notes 149 6. Becoming ‘big fish’ : On entrepreneurial networks and technological trajectories 151 Norway and Chile: Fish farming from the antipodes 152 So far, so close: What are the contact zones? 153 Some methodological considerations 155 Mr. Thomsen and Sr. Ross: “Growing side by side with the business” 156 Intermezzo on net-pens: A master key to salmon farming 157 Intermezzo on well-boats: the fish carrier 164 viii Epilogue 166 Entrepreneurial networks and technological trajectories: In search of departing points 168 Situated actions: on collapsing context and content into one 168 Becoming entrepreneur: the process of multiple identification 169 On technological trajectories 175 Conclusion 177 Notes 179 7. A day with a crew: Salmon farming as workers’ practices 181 The organization of production and the production of organization 181 Villegas: a workers’ camp in the Patagonian fjords 183 ‘Los muchachos’ of Centro Marta: a conventional Seawater Fish Farm 188 One day with a crew 190 Social life in a Pontoon: Jefe Gabriel and the fish farmers floating school 195 GrandSalmon Headquarters: the white collar crew 203 Sites and Practices: making sense of salmon farming 207 Steps towards an engaged epistemology in the disclosure of livelihoods 207 Livelihoods within capitalism? 211 Further implications on the performance of salmon farming 213 Mobility, social organization of work and constitution of labor market 213 The myth of the unruly fishermen 214 Reconstitution of family, groups and community 217 New (economic?) settlements 219 Conclusions: a plea for the democratization of experience at the workplace 220 Notes 222 8. Lobbying Networks 225 Encountering ‘a case’ and path-finding tactics 225 What is lobby? 227 A public chronology of the ‘Safeguard case’ 228 Brief comment on trade defence instruments 231 Brussels, the grand lobby hub 233 Diplomats, advocates, and European Commission officials 234 Back to Chile, back to Puerto Cisnes, and back to the fish farms 241 The labouring of Networks 242 On asymmetries and differences 243 On time and place 244 On strategies and tactics 245 On mediums and resonances 247 On power and persuasion 249 Reassembling the jigsaw puzzle 250 On situated-ness and blind spots: A short note on methodology 251 The politics of lobbying 253 The (de)construction of a trade controversy: towards a conclusión 256 Notes 257 9. Conclusions: Development as regional fields of action 261 Regional fields of action 264 Food commodities and networks 266 ix Regionalization versus regional fields 267 Sites and practices for the democratization of the region-making experience 268 The ontology of a region 270 References 271 Annexes Annex 1. Campaigns in opposition to industrial projects in the Chilean Patagonia 291 Annex 2. Tables 293 Annex 3. Maps 295 Annex 4. Photos 301 Summary 307 Resumen 311 Samenvatting 315 Curriculum Vitae 319 List of Maps Map 1. Patagonia xvi Map 2. Research Area 9 Map 3. Norway 295 Map 4. Tabula Geographica Regni Chile, Alonso de Ovalle, XVII century 63 Map 5. Southern Highway 296 Map 6. Chile’s administrative chart after the Regional Reform of 1975 73 Map 7. Cartographic base of Aysén Region in Atlas of Aysén 79 Map 8. Regional Coastline Zoning 81 Map 9. Terrestrial Zoning 81 Map 10. Contemporary politico-administrative division of Chile 297 Map 11. Aysén: Indigenous people distribution 298 Map 12. Region Ten and a Half 299 List of Photos Photo 1. Panoramic view of Puerto Cisnes in 1958 100 Photo 2. Village of Puerto Cisnes around 1960 100 Photo 3. Group of Children in front of the School and Church of Don Guanella, 101 1961 Photo 4. Don Luis and group of students from the vocational agrarian school of 101 Puerto Cisnes around 1970 Photo 5. View of Puerto Cisnes from the Bay in 1961 117 Photo 6. View of Puerto Cisnes from the Bay in 2005 117 Photo 7. Newspaper record on the construction of the Orphanage and School Hogar San Luis de Puerto Cisnes, 1959 301 Photo 8. Street painting with images of Eugenia Pirzio-Biroli and Father Antonio Ronchi 302 Photo 9. Image of Father Antonio Ronchi 302 x Photo 10. Net-pen technology (fish farm at Puyuhuapi Fjord) 167 Photo 11. Well boat harvesting fish in the Puyuhuapi Fjord 167 Photo 12. View of Villegas camp, Isla Magdalena 186 Photo 13. Fish farm crew on their daily way to work 186 Photo 14. Fish farm crew at the boat on their daily way to work 187 Photo 15. Fish Farm 187 Photo 16. Fish farm worker feeding with semi-automatic system 303 Photo 17. Fish farm worker feeding with help of submarine camera 303 Photo 18. Team of divers collecting dead fish 304 Photo 19. Veterinary and fish farm staff practicing fish necropsies 304 Photo 20.