Social interaction and conflicts. Power inequality among actors in a fishing community and natural reserve area:the Punta de Choros case in Chile

Abstract: This thesis describes power and communication relationships among actors in the fishing community and protected natural reserves in Punta de Choros, Chile. By conducting interviews in situ, local actors’ discourses are reconstructed and underlying relational power capabilities between the local community and new social actors are described. Concepts like access, development critiques, new rurality within the framework of political ecology, and network communication and empowerment within the scope of power theories, will be introduced to analyze their social interaction. This work also aims to describe how the implementation of a nearby mining project has affected the community and what actions are being taken to deal with this new scenario. Punta de Choros faces situations that are both local and global. Parts of the community show an increasing vulnerability that is being taken advantage of by the mining company. Detecting what operating power relationships and communication networks are can be a useful tool for local actors and communication network programmers in the future. This tool can help empower local communities, NGOs or any kind of organization seeking to shed light on local problems arising from the globalization process.