Floods and collective action for the re-appropriation of territory disputed by urban-rural extractivism in Lujan, province of Buenos Aires (2012-2015)

Abstract

From an interdisciplinary perspective, we reflect on the scope of extractivism based on an experience of territorial and class struggle in the context of the 2012 floods in Luján (Buenos Aires Province). These floods are considered a turning point in collective action, which gave rise to much debate about their causes directly involving the State. Different social actors participated actively in the discussion, elaboration and definition of key elements of territorial management, such as the current demand for enactment of a minimum-budget law that regulates the use and appropriation of wetlands, and access to decent housing and land, among others.
We analyze different organizational experiences on the part of the affected population, with the purpose of identifying territorial boundaries of the collective process ever since the floods. This article is the result of collaboration between postgraduate thesis research and the systematic and planned territorial work the authors carried out during the floods between 2012 and 2015. In an exploratory - descriptive way, using participant observation as a research technique, we intend to give an account of the organization process in a territory disputed by the advance of urban and rural extractivism.

In the initial section of the article we delve into the main conceptual framework according to which the processes are analyzed. In the following section, we define wetlands in general and in particular the one of the Luján river basin and describe its working, in order to be able to focus on the way in which floods affect the territory of Luján. On this basis, we proceed to analyse the social processes which are the subject of this reflection, so as to identify their territorial boundaries. In the last section we share some final considerations.

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