?Critical approach to the environmental policies in Argentina: sustainable development and the case of the integrated urban solid waste management proposal.?

PI PUIG, ANA PILAR

Wuppertal

Workshop; IPIW Summer School; 2015

Since the social perspective on environmental issues is relatively new in Latin America, there are not many researchers, papers or theoretical streams to approach such a complex phenomenon as the relationship between society and environment. Furthermore, the concept of sustainable development leading the global environmental agenda acquires diverse meanings and interpretations among both academic and political arenas. The problem is that environmental policies in Argentina do not take into consideration the multicultural background and the socio-economic reality of the country -with a large part of the population living in poverty and vulnerable conditions-. Then, although this project was elaborated from a sociological view, it integrates very well in its aims with philosophical and cultural frameworks. The aims of the research and the methods to achieve them are the following: (1)to recognize the wide range of meanings involved in the concept of sustainable development I propose to make a discourse analysis using the concepts of ?discourse? and ?hegemony? in Ernesto Laclau?s theoretical proposal. The term sustainable development becomes a floating signifier useful as holder of different meanings and understandings. This can be addressed by analyzing both documents of international organizations and academic papers from different disciplines. (2)to discuss the foundations and principles of the concept of sustainable development as a core idea for Argentinian environmental policiesI propose to specifically analyze ?through a content analysis? the official documents of the Argentinian Secretary of Environment and Sustainable Development, in charge of the national environmental policies, to see whether they take into consideration the non-developed and multicultural condition. (3)to identify the assumptions of the proposal of integrated urban solid waste management and to discuss them from a local perspective I propose to analyze the Argentinian laws and programs concerning the integrated urban solid waste management and contrast them with facts of our socio-economic and cultural reality. It is worth to note that I am in contact with Prof. Dr. Heike Weber (Technik- und Umweltgeschichte) and Prof. Dr. Peter Imbusch (Soziologie). Prof. Dr. Weber ́s current research project ?Nach dem Konsum: Zur Geschichte des Hausmülls im deutsch-französischen Vergleich, 1880er-1970er Jahre? approaches the topic of waste from a historical perspective and it would be very positive to exchange with her. Prof. Imbusch integrates together with the Wuppertal Institute the Zentrums für Transformationsforschung und Nachhaltigkeit, an interesting project to meet. Moreover, the summer school would be an excellent opportunity to integrate the discourse analysis method and the cultural studies approach to discuss my hypotheses and provisional findings regarding the concept of sustainable development and its consequences on the implementation of environmental policies at the local level.