Agua, democratización ambiental y fronteras extractivas en Colombia

This article examines the dynamics around citizen participation mechanisms activated in the extractive frontiers of Colombia since 2004 to protect water sources, territories, and peasant livelihoods. The cases show that there have been two waves of environmental democratisation in Colombia; that there is synergy between the instruments of deliberation and participation, as well as tension between participatory and representative democracy; and that water discourses are a common thread that unifies mobilisation for environmental democratisation in the context of socio‐environmental conflicts. The emergence of and barriers to environmental democratisation are analysed as two opposing trends constituted by different logics and strategies. Viewed in the national context, the social mobilisations emerging in extractive frontiers are reinterpreting democracy, strengthening claims for environmental justice, and making evident the contradictions of capitalism. The response of the broader society has important implications for the future of less destructive economic models and for democracy itself.