TENSIONING THE ENVIRONMENTAL FIELD: THE RELATIONS OF POWER IN DISPUTE POLICY AROUND WIND FARM IN RIO GRANDE DO NORTE
Wind energy, environmental field, power, conflict, political disputes, territories.
Wind energy has been gaining support for a wide implementation in Brazil since the creation of the Incentive Program for Alternative Sources - PROINFA in 2002, highlighting the Northeast region as the one of greatest interest. To the detriment of environmental crises, the expansion of wind farms is justified by the urgency to effect changes in the energy matrix of countries, in which renewable and clean sources are considered. Despite the positive environmental contribution related to the low emission of polluting gases and the eventual generation of jobs, the arrival of wind farms has engendered a series of conflicting dynamics in the territories. After the literature reveals a framework of heterogeneous conflicts, the synthesis that these conflicts are related to power issues is proposed as an assumption and, consequently, when they come into dispute, they claim legitimacy over the ways of life and about the uses and future ofterritories. Thus, in addition to identifying the conflict, it seems to constitute an advance for literature, also analyzing how this conflict builds the possibility of disputing power and legitimacy. However, in view of the fact that power is a structure that hierarchically unequal materially and symbolically the actors in dispute, we ask ourselves how do communities manage to dispute the territory with wind projects in the face of an asymmetric power relationship? Therefore, the overall objective is to analyze the power relations in political disputes between enterprises, local government and civil society arising from the implementation of wind farms in the territories of São Miguel do Gostoso, Galinhos e Areia Branca of Rio Grande do Norte. The municipalities were chosen in order to contemplate the different phases of implementation and operation of the wind farms, making it possible to monitor the conflicting contexts from different time frames. For this purpose, qualitative methodological design, based on the case study method, and data collection, carried out through interviews, simple observation, photographs, bibliographic and documentary research, are used. From this, it is intended to map the actors, interactions and the strength of the speeches in the political dispute over wind farms in these territories.