Environmental conflicts and cultural misunderstandings in a Buenos Aires wetland settlement

WERTHEIMER, MARINA

Nordia Geographical Publications

Geographical Society of Northern Finland - Geography Research Unit at the University of Oulu

Lugar: Oulu; Año: 2022 vol. 51 p. 57 - 79

1238-2086

This article aims to contribute to the ongoing debate on the politics of reclaiming the commons and resisting extractivism, drawing on a case of environmental conflict and ontological equivoca-tions in the Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires. On the south of the City of Buenos Aires, the Techint Group plans to build a real estate project by promising ?progress? and ?development? for an area affected by numerous environ-mental problems. This project spurred social mobilizations led by neighbors and local organiza-tions which denounce the environmental and housing impacts.Drawing on an anthropological approach, I investigate what happens when a consensus cannot be reached regarding the solution to ? or even the very nature of ? an environmental ?problem.? I reflect on the need for a new cosmopolitics that can transcend the cultural misun-derstandings that arise from the fact that ?the various collectives that populate the world do not really understand the fundamental questions that engage other collectives? (Descola, 2012).