State Mediation and Territorial Transformations around a Conflict over Land in Abasto, La Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Abstract

In this article we discuss the relation between public policy and territory. To reach this aim we make a theoretical-methodological proposal based on a critical conception of territory as an expression of power relations and that see public policy as a broad social process in which civil society actors and state actors interact, which in its turn generates transformations territorial. Through the use of primary and secondary sources and with a qualitative methodology, in this article we deeply analyze a case. It is a conflict over land in the town of Abasto, La Plata (Buenos Aires, Argentina), where tension arises between various actors over the ownership and the use of a property. The conclusions show theoretical reflections on the modalities in which the state internalizes the demands of civil society and how this is crystallized in the territory. For our case of study, it is proved a dynamic of urban expansion – starring excluded sectors – and a decline in productive land use.