Conflict and " ambientalization " in urban renewal processes on the coast of the city of Buenos Aires

This article analyzes environmental conflicts associated with urban renewal processes in the coastal area of a neighborhood near the city of Buenos Aires (Argentina) from 2004 onwards. Using an ethnographic approach, this article explores the ways in which the actions of different protagonist actors are related to diverse environmentalist topics during conflictual social processes. The different environmental notions these actors deploy are connected to their ways of relating to the riverside environment. For the management of a new urban development model, nature represents surplus value in the megaproject sales strategy, while collective actors contest the installation of these urban developments on account both of their environmental impact and of the imposition of commercial logic in their territory. These findings aim to make critical contributions to contemporary urban policies, and also venture into the realm of public debate on equitable access to green and public spaces.