This conceptual paper explores the theoretical possibilities of posthumanism and presents ecologies of repair as a heuristic device to explore the association modes of different entities, which, when confronted with the effects of human-induced destructive events, seek to repair the damage and transform the conditions of coexistence of various life forms. The central idea is that severe socio-environmental crisis caused by an intensification of industrial activity are conducive to observing new sociomaterial configurations and affective dispositions that, through the reorganization of practices of resistance, remediation, and mutual care, are oriented to generating reparative and/or transformative processes from damaged ecologies and communities. Crises constitute true ontological experimentation processes where the presence of other-than-human natures, and of artifacts or devices that participate in reparative actions, become visible. A post-human approach to nature allows us to use languages and methodologies that do not restrict the emergence of assemblages under the assumption of theira prioriontological separation, but rather examine their reparative potential based on the efficacy of situated relationships. Methodologically, transdisciplinarity is relevant, with ethnography and other engaged methods applied over units of observation and experience called socio-geo-ecologies. The relevant attributes of these socio-geo-ecologies, beyond the individual, community, or institutional aspects, are the specific geological characteristics that make possible an entanglement of interdependent relationships between human and non-human agents. The conceptual analysis is illustrated with empirical examples stemming from socio-geo-ecologies researched in Southern Chile.

Resumen Se presenta una propuesta teórica y metodológica para el estudio sociológico de la transición energética hacia energías renovables no convencionales, entendida como un proceso de cambio inducido vinculado a cambio climático, cuyos cursos de acción no están exentos de controversias sociotécnicas. La investigación se fundamenta en cuatro años de investigación sobre trayectorias territoriales de producción, uso y significación de la energía en tres regiones del sur-austral de Chile. A partir de una matriz teórica de la transición energética basada en los grados de renovabilidad y convencionalidad de la energía, se identifican diferentes regímenes sociotécnicos a partir de los cuales se debe indagar de modo empírico las formas situadas que adopta esta transición. Cada uno de estos regímenes fue investigado a través de casos de estudio lo que nos permite presentar aprendizajes generales de interés sociológico. A modo de conclusión, se propone ir más allá del concepto de régimen a través de la noción de ensamblaje, lo que permite explorar modos no lineales en que se asocian agentes heterogéneos en la territorialización de la energía. Además, se plantea que los grados de aceptación o rechazo social de la energía no debe ser el motor que mueva la investigación sobre esta materia, sino la forma en que las sociedades definen, debaten y construyen pragmáticamente formas democráticas y justas de uso energético en cada territorio. Desde nuestra perspectiva, esto supone avanzar en comprender estos procesos como parte de las soberanías energéticas de los pueblos.

Current debate on the implementation of resilience in addressing climatic impacts calls for more pragmatic means of reducing losses. In this study we aimed to generate context-specific knowledge about resilience factors for addressing the impacts of drought, with the expectation that bringing forth experiential knowledge on how impacts were addressed in the past would shed light on what constitutes key resilience factors for practitioners working in urban contexts. The study was carried in three of the largest cities in Chile: Santiago, Concepción, and Valdivia. The analytical framework consists of urban and regional resilience incorporating transdisciplinary approaches applying the Resilience-Wheel tool, combined with participatory methods for the co-production of knowledge and qualitative content analysis of documents and workshops. Results show that key determinants of building resilience to drought were: improving education and access to information, enhancing preparedness, promoting technology transfer, reinforcing organizational linkages and collaboration, decentralizing governance, and encouraging citizen participation. The Resilience-Wheel was useful for navigating the conceptual complexity and diversity of perspectives inherent among social actors. The transdisciplinary approach allowed us to co-produce key knowledge that can be applied to build resilience in future, through a bottom-up approach that bridges the science–policy interface.