Notes on Regional Development involving Hydroelectric Plants in the Uruguay Basin

Abstract

In development, energy may be considered as a neuralgic point. By giving priority to the
water matrix, Brazil has undertaken the construction of hydroelectric plants, which implies large-scale projects
(LSPs). The adjectivization of the term development - sustainable, endogenous - accompanies these projects,
which in themselves, do not need to be considered as promotors of development or environmental impacts.
This article lists the elements that should be considered when analyzing the promotion of development through
large-scale projects, distinguishing concepts such as economic growth and human development, pointing out
the endogenous and exogenous paradox of development as well as the concept of territorial innovation based
in political elements such as institutional density, democracy, social capital and empowerment within communities. The discussion is empirically located in the Uruguay Basin, Southern Brazil, where since the 1960s it
has been decided to systematically explore hydroelectricity. As a central thesis, the present article argues that,
ignoring the conjunction between the concepts of theoretical nature and the empirical realities of major hydroelectric dams in the region, the development of large-scale projects represents a euphemism that supplants territories and causes the disintegration of locations in the name of profitable deterritorialization, thereby causing
territorial sequelae.