Adopting Technology and Community Empowerment: Environmental Community-based Monitoring in Peru and Chile

Extractive developments and local concerns about their impacts have spurred the adoption of new technologies for community-based environmental monitoring (CBEM) of extractive sites. We analyzed the socio-technical processes of technology adoption and adaptation in two CBEM implementation cases in Peru and Chile. Using a qualitative methodology, we argue that the ways social actors select, acquire, learn to use, and interpret technological measuring devices shape the processes of expertise, community empowerment, and the production of expert knowledge in monitoring experiences. Our analysis highlights how the adoption and adaptation of new technologies create tensions among individuals and organizations over the use of measuring devices, the interpretation of the data they produce, and the political goals of their use in monitoring. Finally, we show how communities can regain more control over local resources by producing expert knowledge that challenges state and corporate scientific narratives.