"DEMOLISHING HOTELS". TERRITORIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONFLICTS IN MIRAMAR AND NECOCHEA

The recovery of tourism on the Buenos Aires maritime coast (Argentina), after the 2001 crisis, brought an associated growth in investments in the sector that reinforced the continuity of the hegemonic model of territorial construction supported by the interests of the tourism and real estate sector. Certain territorial interventions in the business community in this new stage, aimed at privatizing public space, expanding the urban border and impacting the environment, were enabled and supported to a great extent by the local state. However, these initiatives encountered resistance in local groups organized as socio-environmental movements or assemblies. Based on this novel process in the region, that of rejecting a historically conceived idea of "progress", the objective of this work is to address and characterize the conflict and territorial dispute in two coastal areas corresponding to two cities: Miramar and Necochea, putting in value the concepts used and defined in the contest. The choice of cases, among other conflicts, is due to the similarities, since in both the affectation is given by the cession of green public spaces for real estate and tourism enterprises. Methodologically, the discursive and propositional dimension of the opposing sectors is analyzed, and the achievements made by social-environmental movements are highlighted, as forms of collective management of disputed territories. To this end, field work was carried out in the places of conflict and interviews with the protagonists and antagonists. As a conclusion, a line of argument is presented in which it is expressed that these conflicts represent opportunities to vindicate socio-spatial justice.