Objective:

Identify how wind and photovoltaic energy megaprojects contribute to social fragmentation in rural areas, to recognize them as initiatives that are part of the current problems of the New Rurality.

Methodology:

It is an exploratory scope study that articulates a documentary analysis with professional experience in the energy sector to carry out a socio-spatial analysis of 12 wind farms and 11 photovoltaic parks identified in the state of Yucatan. This work was strengthened with a matrix derived from the documentary analysis of 24 socio-environmental assessments of said megaprojects.

Results:

It was identified that the 23 megaprojects present in Yucatan affect 260 plots, corresponding to 16 agrarian nuclei, which bring together 5,851 ejidatarios. The distribution of its economic benefits as well as its socio-territorial impact will generate problems that increase the social differentiation between the agricultural and non-agricultural rural population.

Limitations:

It is necessary that future research, can expand and strengthen the conceptual proposals of deagrarianization and social fragmentation.

Conclusions:

Wind and photovoltaic energy megaprojects represent an innovative technology based on the exploitation of natural resources. Its installation and operation supposes the rent of land that previously had agricultural purposes, which implies not only a drastic change in rural economic activities, but also the transformation of the classic notion of peasant and farmer in a pluriactive producer where the leasing of land for developing non-agricultural activities profoundly changes the composition of family income. This transformation puts in tension the agrarian structures based on social ownership of the land.

        · abstract in Spanish     · text in Spanish     · Spanish ( pdf )