Territorialisation and counter-territorialisation at the frontier. Spatial boundaries and mobilities in Chilean Southern Patagonia

Summary

Tourism and aquaculture are two sectors moving around the world, looking for peripheral places to expand their activities. In moving around these peripheral areas they increasingly come into conflict with other uses of terrestrial and marine spaces and Indigenous communities. This thesis zooms in on three cases in Chilean Southern Patagonia, one on land and two at sea, in which disputes between global and place-based networks of actors over access and control of spaces, resources and people’s mobility are shaped by spatial boundaries. Based on a qualitative case study methodology this thesis shows that beyond the traditional perspective of spatial boundaries that are used to control people’s mobility, new types of relations between boundaries and mobilities emerge, such as tourist flows affecting boundary formation, and spatial boundaries being used by seemingly disempowered indigenous groups in their resistance to the expansion of global networks.