ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on more micro-levels and links important processes and mechanisms occurring at these levels to those of the southern region. It analyzes the interrelations between international and national actors and local people, especially regarding connections between the political and the household economies, the roles of external actors in affecting the available options in the use of natural resources, and the subsequent decisions of local resource managers. The chapter also focuses on the municipality and the community. It emphasizes social differentiation, variations in the household economy, and the relationship between modified agricultural systems and environmental destruction. The chapter introduces two highland communities located in the municipality of Pespire and describes diversity in local level social, economic, and ecological patterns. In both communities actions did not include direct resistance to incorporation into the capitalist system but rather attempts to shape the way in which each community was articulated into the larger capitalist system.
