Abstract

SARMIENTO, Héctor José  and  LARRINAGA, Carlos. FROM ANOTHER WORLD AND SPEAKING ANOTHER LANGUAGE. SUSTAINABILITY REPORTS WITHOUT ENVIRONMENTAL CONFLICTS OR INDIGENOUS PEOPLES. Innovar [online]. 2021, vol.31, n.82, pp.87-105.  Epub Nov 11, 2021. ISSN 0121-5051.  https://doi.org/10.15446/innovar.v31n82.98418.

From a Latin American conceptual perspective, sustainability reports come from another world and speak another language. To support this claim, this work seeks to identify practices that marginalize indigenous perspectives within the sustainability reports of recognized extractive companies. For that purpose, we will deploy the discourse analysis approach and some developments of alternative critical thinking, which will be applied to some environmental conflicts that compromise indigenous territories and communities in Latin America. The reports, understood as a communicational instrument of social and environmental accounting, are the main source of analysis of this study and will be examined from the supporting theories (institutional, stakeholder, and legitimacy) of their scope and content. In contrast, the invisibilization and subalternation in these reports will be examined from a critical vision of the epistemologies of the South and decolonial thought. Findings, which were contrasted with information from NGOS, alternative press means, and official sources, show a denial of conflicts, the invisibilization of the counterparts and their resistance, the reproduction of the dominant logic, and intellectual colonialism. It is concluded that the concealment and marginalization of facts question the transparency and credibility of businesses, and that hegemonic theories are not relevant to examine the socio-environmental issues occurring in the Global South. Therefore, alternative approaches must be embraced for an adequate study and understanding. To conclude, we propose to broaden the study of this phenomenon through research-action-participation techniques and decolonial approaches that open the debate from the perspective of the silent voices.

Keywords : Environmental conflicts; environmental accounting; critical accounting; sustainability reports; indigenous peoples.

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