The development of a Natural Resource Management Policy : A discourse analysis on soybean farming during Uruguay’s agricultural regime shift (2000-2010)

Abstract: This thesis studies symbolic power within Uruguay’s agricultural regime shiftbetween 2000 and 2010. This socio-ecological system (SES) has been changing froman agricultural-livestock farming system to one dominated by intensive cropagriculture. The aim is to understand the role of a natural resource managementprogram (NRMP) within the processes that are leading to a different state. The mainresearch method is a discursive analysis of actors’ position-taking regarding thechange in agriculture.The main results indicate that: 1) an interacting regime shift took place in Uruguaywhere a new type of agricultural producer was the main driver that generated multipledomain and scale effects; 2) soil erosion as technological and neutral problememerges as a consequence of the struggle between actors’ interpretations of theagricultural changes; 3) a reorganization cycle takes place in natural resourcemanagement program (NRMP); 4) NRMP promotes a further reorganization ofresources: development of new scientific research problems and 5) a regime shift isobservable in natural resource management: ecological knowledge is based on powerrelations rather than on historical experience.The study concludes that symbolic relations of power during a regime shift are ofgreat importance to understand how a society institutionalizes a management programand develops ecological knowledge. In turn, NRMP plays a fundamental role duringthat system reorganization phase, as it sustains certain exploitation of the naturalresources through the promotion of new ecological knowledge. The recommendation for RS theory is to situate natural resource management and ecological knowledge asparts of the dynamics of a social-ecological system.