Capital in the Jungle

Abstract

Chapter 2 traces the ideational struggles over the Brazilian Amazon from the early explorations of the region by non-indigenous explorers into the 1980s. The chapter specifically highlights the important theoretical undercurrents of how seeing the tropics and the push for modernity in Amazonia became manifested through grandiose development projects and deeply symbolic exertions of state power. This chapter situates the Amazon region as a space fraught with the tension between ecological concerns and state economic planning priorities which often take uneven, incomplete, and erratic forms. These make lasting marks on the landscapes and societal structures in that region, and ultimately provide the ideational foundation for later sustainable development articulations.