Transformaciones territoriales en la Región Metropolitana de Buenos Aires y reconfiguración del régimen de acumulación en la década neo-desarrollista

Abstract

This paper delves into the relationship between territorial transformations produced in the Metropolitan Region of Buenos Aires and the reconfiguration of the accumulation regime that came about as a result of the 2002 devaluation in Argentina, in the contextof socio-political processes that challenge the neoliberalism paradigm in various countries of the region. To this end, a brief description is made of the characteristics inherent to the accumulation regime in the last decade, based on domestic private consumption and enabled by the increasing prices of commodities and some manufactured goods that are exported by Argentina. This accumulation regime is characterized as neo-developmentalist for its attempt to capture some of the extraordinary income and turning it into a moderate industrialization strategy. The paper highlights the importance of the construction sector in the accumulation regime, as a space-time compression mechanism that absorbs capital and labor surplus. Subsequently, territorial transformations in the Metropolitan Region of Buenos Aires are characterized, including: urban renewal processes in central areas, densification of residential areas, peripheral expansion of gated communities and sub-specialized centers, in a context of revitalized migration flows that increase pressure on housing conditions ofthe population. This paper argues that the territorial transformations of the last decade are the result of a continuing sequence of processes initiated during the 1990s, revealing the ongoinglogic of urban space production and the role played by such transformations in terms of the capital accumulation process.