**6. Distributive territorial transregional justice and improvement of quality of life: human love and understanding**

Territories are made up of ecosystems of various natures and levels of vulnerability, with given productive potentials, ecosystem capacities, and abilities to assimilate human activities. Therefore, it is unfair for some regions to be repeatedly loaded by environmental and social externalities to the point of saturation or existential collapse, worsening the quality of life of their inhabitants [1]. Regions or towns are frequently overloaded due to their comparative advantages in terms of natural resources (rivers, for instance) and levels of poverty and social exploitation, with little capacity for action or negotiation with businesses or public institutions. There are many examples: the *HidroAysen* project in Chile, hydroelectric projects and deforestation in the Amazon, and mining projects in Mexico and Peru, among others. In general, the local community becomes "enchanted" by job creation and promises to install a cutting-edge technology. But the promises tend to fade over time, with the local community left bearing new externalities added to its already diminished quality of life and deteriorated environment.

Transregional justice means weighing the cost-benefit perception of the entire region, with specific focus on quality of life ([1], p. 14). Often there is a perception that "only other regions or the producer or distributor will benefit" or that a region will be harmed by a polluting project that was not accepted by another region. For example, the groups that criticized *HidroAysen* rightly argued that the ecosystems of the Patagonia would be affected and that the electricity would be produced especially to meet the energy demands of mining operations in the North of the country [1].

Therefore, transregional justice should be a fundamental criterion for assessing an investment project with territorial and social impacts. In other words, a balance among regions must be fostered, avoiding overloading one region or town with environmental or social liabilities, in order to maintain quality of life levels in all regions. It means seeing to an equitable distribution of benefits and liabilities and supporting the most economically and socially depressed communities with benefits.

For Sergio Boisier, a territorial planning expert, development requires the deployment of the endogenic planning capacities of a territory: "First, endogeny means a growing capacity for autonomy for the territory to make its own development choices, choosing, for example, a style consistent with its traditions or culture, or simply a collectively 'invented' mode of development. This growing autonomy is completely inseparable from a similarly growing decentralization process, which leads to the conclusion that well-understood development is necessarily decentralized." ([18], p. 102).

Boisier defines four planes that must be articulated and strengthened as a condition of endogenous development. The second plane refers to the "growing capacity of the territory to appropriate a portion of the economic surplus generated there for local reinvestment" in order to ensure sustainable development and diversify the material base of the territory, making it less vulnerable to economic fluctuations [18]. The third plane "means that the territory must have a capacity for generating innovations that cause structural changes therein, not only an increase in scale. This assumes the existence of a local science and technology system…" The fourth plane "means the existence of a territorial culture that generates an identity that connects the collective being to the territory" ([18], pp. 102, 103).

So-called procedural justice must be incorporated into transnational justice. There are often inconsistencies between different levels of regulations. In Latin America, in Chile, for example, it may—and does—happen that a project is rejected by a regional agency and approved by a national one [1]. This occurs due to the prevailing centralism. Centralism in decision-making impedes more independent and

*Quality of Life - Biopsychosocial Perspectives*

income distribution levels.

interviews or other instruments.

etc. Municipalities have these data.

services, heating, clothing, etc.

([1], p. 26):

safety.

justice.

surroundings.

quality of daily life.

in a continuous process of transformation that must be taken into account if a foreign

A social baseline in a study should include the following aspects or indicators

• **Human development index of the community**. Developed by the UNPD, it includes (i) income level, (ii) schooling level, and (iii) life expectancy. This index can be complemented by the **Gini coefficient or index**, which measures

• **Quality-of-life system of the community**: social support networks, levels of trust/distrust, internal cohesion, sense of social well-being, subjective perception of quality of life, and urban landscape. It can be measured using surveys/

• **Access to facilities and infrastructure**: health, streetlights, drinking water network, schools, public transport, commerce, recreation areas, playgrounds,

• **Level of basic needs fulfillment**: food/nutrition, housing, health, sanitary

• **Levels of territorial segregation/integration**, neighborhood violence, and

• Human load carriage levels of the territory/area or region and transregional

• **Level of community identity and sense of belongingness** to its area and

• **Local knowledge** [17]. It is represented by local knowledge and practices related to production, ecosystems, medicinal plants, indigenous food systems, climate change adaptation strategies, the philosophy of "Buen Vivir," and

These criteria are relatively broad and not intended to be the only criteria or exclude others that could eventually be added or integrated, but they are basic and necessary to consider in a social baseline ([1], p. 26). However, they can be hierarchized, establishing which of them could be more important in a given study. As a structuring perspective, the hierarchization must consider the commons, all that which from an ontological perspective makes up the socionatural and cultural foundation that sustains human life. There are already data on some aspects and indicators in the public system such as the Human Development Index or Gini index, as well as data on infrastructure, access to basic services, employment and unemployment, and age structure of the population ([1], p. 27). But quantitative and qualitative studies must be done in order to obtain other information, for example, to measure quality of life, spatial segregation, and levels of territorial inequity regarding interregional human load, identity, and sense of

• **Employment quality**, unemployment, poverty, and inequality levels.

body is to be added to its history, landscape, and daily life [1].

**196**

belongingness.

sustainable regional development. For justice to be applied, neither a declaration of principles nor the mere existence of legal standards is sufficient. Nor is a declaration of respect for human dignity or a certain social empathy for those affected by a given project enough ([1], p. 33).

Indeed, many economic interventions are carried out with contempt for social groups, especially when they are poor or have "traditional" ways of life that are not considered "modern," as occurred with the construction of hydroelectric centers in Mapuche territories in the Upper Biobío in the Biobío Region. This is frequently the case with megaprojects that intervene in the ancestral territories of indigenous communities in Latin America. Thus, author Nussbaum rightly states that for justice to be effective it must be accompanied by real webs of feelings that intrinsically entail the mutual understanding of the human quality of the subjects participating in a social process strained by interests and suffused with fair aspirations [1]: "Respect on its own is cold and inert, insufficient to overcome the bad tendencies that lead human beings to tyrannize over one another. Disgust denies fundamental human dignity to groups of people, portraying them as mere animals. Consequently, respect grounded in the idea of human dignity will prove impotent to include all citizens on terms of quality unless it is nourished by imaginative engagement with the lives of others and by an inner grasp of their full and equal humanity." "Love, then, matters for justice – especially when justice is incomplete and an aspiration (as in all real nations), but even in an achieved society of human beings, were such to exist." ([19], p. 459).

### **7. Citizen participation, democracy, and quality of life**

Citizen participation is the modern democratic mechanism that ultimately grants social legitimacy to any project that intervenes in a territory and affects the quality of life of the community, as generally occurs. Citizen participation must be included in all stages of the planning process. Participation currently has great legitimacy in a society, as it is a method of building cities and societies and developing with a conception and perspective of social inclusion ([1], p. 34).

Nonetheless, the liberal conception of citizen participation is quite restrictive, as it refers only to legal-formal characteristics: "The emphasis liberalism puts on the reclaiming of citizen rights is to the detriment of responsibilities, which, except for obeying laws and paying taxes, are scarcely mentioned. This gives the liberal conception of citizenship a marked legal-formal character, which is why it is considered a weak citizenship. The existence of citizen rights is a necessary but insufficient condition for citizenship. The liberal conception represents an impoverished version of citizenship, in which citizens are reduced to passive bearers of rights, whose freedom consists of being able to pursue their individual interests (or conceptions of a good life)." ([20], p. 123).

Similarly, Fierro states: "From a communitarian perspective, citizenship entails both individual rights and social responsibilities, with a better balance between the two important to attain. Only then will an individual achieve full citizenship, as it entails a strong moral commitment" ([20], p. 124). For real citizen participation to exist, it must be considered early and organized throughout the development and decision-making process of a given project.

Participation first requires public will, in the sense of wanting and facilitating it, which is not always an assumption during the creation of a project. It also requires substantive legal backing and provisions that make it obligatory and clearly define its course. Participation goes hand in hand with trust-building, which means explaining the true environmental and social implications of the project to the public ([1], p. 34).

**199**

**development**

*Quality of Life from the South, Local Knowledge, Socio-Ecological Relationships, and Citizen…*

There are often asymmetries among actors in citizen participation processes, which obviously complicate decision-making, harming the general public, which will endure the externalities. Asymmetries refer to different levels of organization and negotiating capabilities, different economic capacities, different levels of access to the local and national authorities that will make the final decision (influence and lobbying capacity), and different levels of professional capacity to understand the technical designs of projects and procedural codes, in short, different access to

This discrepancy must be considered at the beginning of the process and remediated as much as possible. Approving a project without citizen participation means building a future social conflict: "Critiques of liberal democracy (citizens exercise sovereignty by voting) have led to the emergence of various alternative models, including social democracy (which aspires to greater levels of socioeconomic equality), deliberative democracy (which emphasizes the importance of the deliberation process in public debate and the public use of reason), participatory democracy (which stresses the creation of new forms of direct participation in decision-making, including public hearings, referenda, plebiscites and electronic inquiries) and republican democracy (which revives the concept of freedom as self-determination

Most Latin American countries still have low-intensity democratic systems. Dictatorships violently denied and destroyed the forms of popular representation achieved by various countries in the twentieth century [1]. Nowadays progress toward better forms of democracy is slow and complicated. Demands for social inclusion are the best indication of the political and social reality; that is, social exclusion continues to be a serious problem in practically every country. The same holds true for participation, which is cast as a political demand. It is also an indication of the existence of traditional structures of domination and organization of power. Much remains to be done to progress to forms of social, deliberative, participatory, or republican democracy. There is a lack of political will among the groups in power and, more important, a need to better organize and strengthen civil society. There is also a need for real civic development, which is in a state of emergency. Developed countries, especially in Europe, underwent long, complex processes of social, political, and cultural struggle in order to achieve better levels of social and participatory democracy, which is constantly exposed to dangers and threats of destabilization, as is currently the case with tensions resulting from discussions on immigration and the emergence in various countries of far-right movements and parties, known as "right-wing populists," which threaten democracy, social rights, and freedoms won by peoples who have fought for their emancipation ([1], p. 35). A more direct, civic, and participatory democracy creates conditions consistent with the current development of people's subjectivity and, supported by a more informed society provided with greater and better knowledge and communication systems, undoubtedly contributes to improving the quality of life of the population to the extent that it has access to these new qualities of the globalized modern world.

**8. Traditional knowledge on quality of life:** *Buen Vivir* **as alternative to** 

The traditional knowledge of indigenous peoples and their communities, which have survived the passage of time and modernity, is of great importance in Latin America. Some of this traditional knowledge is closely related to the understanding of quality of life, including the *Küme Mogen* concept of the Mapuche people, *Sumak Kawsay* of the Quechua peoples, *Suma Qamaña* of the Aymara peoples, and

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.88953*

information and limited professional advice ([1], p. 35).

and not non-domination)." ([20], pp. 302, 303).

#### *Quality of Life from the South, Local Knowledge, Socio-Ecological Relationships, and Citizen… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.88953*

There are often asymmetries among actors in citizen participation processes, which obviously complicate decision-making, harming the general public, which will endure the externalities. Asymmetries refer to different levels of organization and negotiating capabilities, different economic capacities, different levels of access to the local and national authorities that will make the final decision (influence and lobbying capacity), and different levels of professional capacity to understand the technical designs of projects and procedural codes, in short, different access to information and limited professional advice ([1], p. 35).

This discrepancy must be considered at the beginning of the process and remediated as much as possible. Approving a project without citizen participation means building a future social conflict: "Critiques of liberal democracy (citizens exercise sovereignty by voting) have led to the emergence of various alternative models, including social democracy (which aspires to greater levels of socioeconomic equality), deliberative democracy (which emphasizes the importance of the deliberation process in public debate and the public use of reason), participatory democracy (which stresses the creation of new forms of direct participation in decision-making, including public hearings, referenda, plebiscites and electronic inquiries) and republican democracy (which revives the concept of freedom as self-determination and not non-domination)." ([20], pp. 302, 303).

Most Latin American countries still have low-intensity democratic systems. Dictatorships violently denied and destroyed the forms of popular representation achieved by various countries in the twentieth century [1]. Nowadays progress toward better forms of democracy is slow and complicated. Demands for social inclusion are the best indication of the political and social reality; that is, social exclusion continues to be a serious problem in practically every country. The same holds true for participation, which is cast as a political demand. It is also an indication of the existence of traditional structures of domination and organization of power. Much remains to be done to progress to forms of social, deliberative, participatory, or republican democracy. There is a lack of political will among the groups in power and, more important, a need to better organize and strengthen civil society. There is also a need for real civic development, which is in a state of emergency. Developed countries, especially in Europe, underwent long, complex processes of social, political, and cultural struggle in order to achieve better levels of social and participatory democracy, which is constantly exposed to dangers and threats of destabilization, as is currently the case with tensions resulting from discussions on immigration and the emergence in various countries of far-right movements and parties, known as "right-wing populists," which threaten democracy, social rights, and freedoms won by peoples who have fought for their emancipation ([1], p. 35).

A more direct, civic, and participatory democracy creates conditions consistent with the current development of people's subjectivity and, supported by a more informed society provided with greater and better knowledge and communication systems, undoubtedly contributes to improving the quality of life of the population to the extent that it has access to these new qualities of the globalized modern world.
