Sustainability and immaterial commons: rentier appropriation and intermediation in the artisanal fishing space of southern Chile

Starting from a theoretical model of the generation of value in a knowledge-based economy, we explore the local management of immaterial resources in a post-industrial economy. To address this question, we analyse the management of immaterial commons in four representative locations of the artisanal fishing space of southern Chile, specifically the production of two marine species: sea urchins and the local mussel known as chorito. In this analysis, we observe two patterns through which global and/or local elites co-opt the symbolic value generated by local communities. In both cases, commercial intermediation operates as the basic conditioner of the whole process. On the one hand, the industrial and commercial links of the sea urchin production value chain generate a symbolic value through reference to the association established by global consumers with the landscape of Patagonia. On the other, in the case of choritos there is a symbolic substitution which implies the transformation or annulment of the local nature of immaterial resources in the minds of the same consumers. Both dynamics constitute an obliteration of the differentiation of the product, leading to a common result: over-exploitation of the natural resource and degradation of the environment.