La ilusión de vivir en el bosque (o cuando concretarla implica agotarlo). Imaginarios e imaginación urbana en la planificación territorial del Oeste de Bariloche, Patagonia Argentina

Abstract

The city of San Carlos de Bariloche in Argentine Patagonia is famous for its “unique” landscapes of mountains, forests and lakes, which attract both tourists and new residents in search of a way of life in contact with nature. The rapid population growth with its consequent urban expansion over natural areas generate various problems, among them, the degradation and loss of the main resource of the city: its "natural" landscape. Various attempts to organize and plan the city have been carried out during the last decades. Between 2018 and 2019, the Environmental Urban Development Plan for the West was drawn up, which sought to address the problem of growth towards the most valued landscape areas of the city. This article analyzes, based on an ethnographic work carried out during the public participation meetings organized for the preparation of this Plan, which imaginaries of the West and what it should be entered into debate. Thus, it identifies and analyzes two controversies that emerged in the meetings: Should the West grow? And, for whom is the landscape of the West preserved? Finally, it reflects on the difficulties of living in the forest without exhausting or elitizing it.