Economic modernization versus socio-environmental conflict: discourses in favour of and against Autopista del Atlántico (1976-1979)

Abstract

At the beginning of the Transition to Democracy, Galicia, like the whole Spanish State, experienced an intense social unrest. One of the conflicts that had a lager social impact, triggered impassioned discussions and focused the attention of public opinion for more than a lustrum, was that one provoked by the contruction of the Atlantic Motorway (Autopista del Atlántico). In this paper we analyze this socio - enviromental conflict from the point of view of the discourses and counter - discourses that the different actors taking part at the conflict produced, their underlying reasonings and, in conclusion, the opposite models of economic and territorial development that the two parts were proposing for the Galician future. One of the main contributions of this research lies in the attention paid to the public discourse of those sectors (entrepreneurial, professional or social) which clearly suuported the construction of the motorway, hither to neglected for the limited literature on this topic.