Subaltern discourses on environmental conflicts over garbage: the case of the Doña Juana landfill

Abstract

The management of Urban Solid Waste (USW) in Bogotá has been carried out since 1988, with the Doña Juana Sanitary Landfill (DSJL) and the privatization of the public sanitation service as its main instruments. However, these measures have generated a socio-environmental conflict that has led to environmental and sanitary emergencies in 1997, 2015 and 2020. Furthermore, it has produced a toxic environment for the residents of the Tunjuelo River basin. Thus, this research article studies the subaltern discourse that the Popular Process Assembly South has been constructing in recent decades, regarding the imposition of this technological artifact by the local State –Mayor’s  Office–. Likewise, the discursive, ideological, and political resources that have allowed them to maintain a hegemonic dispute in the territory against state and private institutions are identified, although still without sufficient political positioning compared to other social organizations and residents of the basin.