Twenty-five years under the wind turbines in La Venta, Mexico: social difference, land control and agrarian change

Abstract

ABSTRACT As wind energy investments expand across rural areas, unique class dynamics and accumulation patterns result from this industry. The ejido La Venta town has hosted wind farms since 1994, allowing us to analyse the effects of wind power on patterns of social difference, land control and agrarian change. By drawing on agricultural censuses and on 40 interviews with landowners, this paper argues that wind energy investments shift patterns of land control, through fostering land-based incomes, over the long term. The result is enhanced social differentiation benefitting landowners with more than 20 hectares and pauperising those with small tracts of land.