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Society for Latin American Studies (SLAS) 2015 Annual Conference Aberdeen, April 17th & 18th 2015 Session Title: Politico-Territorial Autonomy and Resource Governance across Latin America Panel Organisers: Anna Laing (University of Glasgow, UK), Francesca Minelli (University of Glasgow, UK) In Latin America, there have been increasing calls for communitarian autonomy over material resources, such as water, forestry/plant life and subsoil minerals, oil and natural gas deposits. Most notably, ethnic-identity movements have demanded greater politico-territorial autonomy over renewable and non-renewable resources within lands collectively titled to indigenous peoples (Laing 2014; Perreault 2001). Concurrently, over the past few decades water and sanitation governance has been delegated to extra-statal community-run organisations in various peri-urban and rural areas (Marston 2013). These shifts in decision-making from state/private enterprises to autonomous collectives highlight emerging experiments in resource governance. That said, conflicts often arise due to competing ‘resource sovereignties’ defined as ‘inter-connecting understandings of territoriality, identity, rights, use and nature’ (McNeish 2011: 20). This panel invites contributions to understanding how politico-territorial autonomy is affecting strategies of resource governance within Latin America. Papers might explore, but are not limited to: * relations between resources, communitarian organisations and the state * management of resources within collective indigenous territories * community-run water or forestry management systems * relations between autonomous governance and neoliberalism * politics of resource conflicts References Laing, A.F. (2014) ‘Resource Sovereignties in Bolivia: Re-Conceptualising the Relationship between Indigenous Identities and the Environment during the TIPNIS Conflict’ Bulletin of Latin American Research doi:10.1111/blar.12211/full Marston, A.J. (2013) ‘Autonomy in a Post-Neoliberal Era: Community Water Governance in Cochabamba, Bolivia’ Geoforum doi:10.1016/j.geoforum.2013.08.013 McNeish, J.-A. (2011) Rethinking Resource Conflict World Bank: Washington. Perreault, T. (2001) ‘Developing Identities: Indigenous Mobilization, Rural Livelihoods, and Resource Access in Ecuadorian Amazonia’ Cultural Geographies 8(4): 381-413. Please follow the link below to submit a 250-word abstract for this panel by Monday 28th November 2014: http://www.abdn.ac.uk/events/slas-2015/paper-submission/abstract-submissions/ Anna Laing PhD Candidate School of Geographical and Earth Sciences University of Glasgow