Bioeconomy, innovation and sustainability: technological utopias in 21st century Amazonia
Bioeconomy. Amazon. Innovation. Anthropology of technology
This dissertation studies technotopic proposals for bioeconomic innovation and their
conceptual frameworks regarding Amazonian sociobiodiversity. Bioeconomy encompasses
economic strategies for preservation based on the sustainable use of renewable resources for
the production of goods and services. Echoing this rationality in different ways, the nine
proposals investigated also stand out for recognizing two elements related to Amazonian
peoples and communities: (1) their production chains based on the region’s natural
resources; and (2) the knowledge associated with their traditional uses of biodiversity.
Overall, they suggest the existence of an incipient Amazonian bioeconomy, whose
development through technological innovation can prevent the complete savannization of
the Amazon and ensure its future. Through dialogue with studies on technology, the
dissertation examines this technotopic representation, outlining its assumptions. Based on
this, it presents the economic prism that underpins the recognition of Amazonian
populations. It also demonstrates that this entails framing cosmo-technical otherness
according to assumptions stemming from the dichotomies of nature//culture (different
cultures symbolize a Nature to be preserved) and culture//technique (in interactions with
Nature, techniques are merely instruments of production and subsistence).