Frontiers, territoriality and tensions in bordering spaces

Abstract

The expansión of the agricultural frontier in the Argentine pampas implied a re-valuation of "bordering" spaces, which were considered "marginal" by capital. This paper aims at interpreting the socio-territorial impact -from both a material and a symbolic level- being caused by the expansión of the productive, business-profile [agricultural and oil] frontier in the center-west of the province of La Pampa. With the interpretative approach provided by qualitative methodologies, we intend to analyze -in a case study- how these frontier expansión processes altered and re-defined the social arena between the years 2000 and 2010, the social construction of the space and the power relations in Chos Malal