ENVIRONMENTAL GOVERNANCE AND TERRITORIAL DISPUTE IN LATIN AMERICA: A CRITIQUE OF THE COLONIALITY OF PLANNING AND THE TECHNOCRATIC RATIONALITY IN THE URBAN-REGIONAL SPACE

CRÍTICA À COLONIALIDADE DO PLANEJAMENTO E À RACIONALIDADE TECNOCRÁTICA NO ESPAÇO URBANO-REGIONAL

Abstract

This article critically analyzes environmental governance as an instrument of territorial reorganization in the urban and regional context of Latin America. Based on an integrative review of 56 articles indexed on the Redalyc platform, the study shows that the notion of governance has been appropriated by a technocratic rationality, often detached from the concrete conflicts and social struggles that shape Latin American territories. Grounded in historical-dialectical materialism, particularly the contributions of Marx, Gramsci, Mészáros, and Kosik, the analysis exposes the pseudo-concreteness of hegemonic approaches and their role in reproducing coloniality. Furthermore, in dialogue with critical Latin American scholars such as Porto-Gonçalves, Svampa, Acselrad, Leff, and Loureiro, the article demonstrates that environmental governance policies frequently reinforce dynamics of colonialism, environmental racism, and epistemic marginalization. Finally, the paper advocates an emancipatory conception of governance, rooted in territoriality and critical epistemologies, as a foundation for the construction of counter-hegemonic urban-regional thought in Latin America.