Environmental conflicts and cultural misunderstandings in a Buenos Aires wetland settlement

Abstract

This article aims to contribute to the ongoing debate on the politics of reclaiming the commons and resisting extractivism, drawing on a case of environmental conflict and ontological equivocations in the Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires. On the south of the City of Buenos Aires, the Techint Group plans to build a real estate project by promising progress and development for an area affected by numerous environmental problems. This project spurred social mobilizations led by neighbors and local organizations, who denounced the environmental and housing impacts. Drawing on an anthropological approach, I investigate what happens when a consensus cannot be reached regarding the solution to — or even the very nature of — an environmental “problem.” Finally, I reflect on the need for a new cosmopolitics that can transcend the cultural misunderstandings that arise from the fact that “the various collectives that populate the world do not really understand the fundamental questions that engage other collectives” (Descola 2012).