Forestry conflict in Spain: Rethinking peasant protest and resistance

Abstract

AbstractThis article examines forestry conflict in the Spanish province of León and the struggle between village communities and the state over the control of common lands and forests. One of this article's conclusions is that forestry conflict reflected, on the one hand, the struggle for economic control not only between the peasants and the state but also between the peasants themselves and, on the other hand, the clash between the market economy championed by the state and the traditional arrangements, values, and solidarities defended by the peasants. Another conclusion is that widely used concepts such as “weapons of the weak” or “environmentalism of the poor” are deemed inadequate regarding the peasant protest and resistance analysed here, which in turn calls for a definition of these new forms of rural resistance or a reformulation of those already in use.