Globalization at the Ends of the Earth: Rural Livelihoods, Wage Labor, and the Struggle over Identity on the Archipelago of Chiloe

Abstract

For the past three decades, policy-makers in Santiago, Chile, have pushed laissez-faire free-market reforms on most sectors of the Chilean economy. On the Archipelago of Chiloe in southern Chile, these reforms have had the effect of introducing wage labor, on a massive scale, to communities that once relied primarily on collective practices of unpaid, reciprocal labor (mingas). My research examines the role of these changing labor practices and livelihoods in the shaping of local identities. I argue that while the Chilean government's neoliberal policies have brought increased commerce to Chiloe through the introduction of export-oriented fishing and aquaculture industries, the accompanying erosion of mingas and rural livelihoods has triggered a pronounced intergenerational shift in collective identity: whereas older islanders today bemoan the disappearance of an ethos of reciprocity, solidarity, and mutual assistance, younger islanders express an explicitly critical view of Chilote history while upholding select values of old.