"Chilote tipo salmon". The relationship between nature commodification and identity production processes. The case of the salmon industry in Los Lagos Region, Chile

This paper uses the case of the installation of the salmon industry in the Los Lagos region, to review the relationship between territorial commoditization and identity. In this work we identify the processes through which the materiality of the salmon could alter or trigger transformations in the local identity. From a review and discussion of the literature on neoliberalism as forms of production of citizenship and subjectivity, with special emphasis on that exploring the Latin American case, but also the literature from political ecology on commoditization of nature, we answer the following question: what strategies have been generated among local actors for facing effect on their identities of the arrival and production of the salmon commodity? We argue from political ecology and related approaches, the thesis that the commoditization of nature and territory not only implies the control or co-production of the environment but is also interwoven with processes of identity and citizenship formation. In other words, certain forms of identities are articulated through the management and control of nature and territory, which in turn influence said management.