The construction of the belo monte hydroelectric power plant: Environmental conflict and the development dilemma

Abstract

In the current Brazilian context, recent economic growth and political stability have provided conditions for the notion of development to return to the core of the debate, as a rule, via the transformation of "natural resources". However, the predominance of this concept does not present a unanimously defined meaning-quite the opposite; in fact, many social groups question the type of development that should be stimulated, and even the need for development itself, highlighting the implied relationship with nature and bringing it to the core of the debate. Based on a field research about the environmental conflict surrounding the construction of what is purposed to be the third largest hydroelectric power plant in the world, the Belo Monte Hydroelectric Power Plant, we propose the analysis of the relationships between society and nature as a key to interpreting development processes, in regards to the definition of the subjects that are qualified to intervene on the course of these processes.