Development, territory and inequality in nowadays' globalization: Current conflicts in the family farming sector in Northeast Misiones, Argentina

Abstract

In this paper we call into question the relationship between development, inequality and territory in the current context of globalization and within the framework of public policies designed, supposedly, to benefit those social actors with fewer resources.In order to do this, we focus on a case study in the northeast of the province of Misiones, Argentina. Here tobacco production, forestry and alternative family farming (AF) (dedicated to food production) are in dispute over the territory, leading to conflict over private land occupation. The analysis evidences: (a) The territorial changes resulting from globalization processes in local areas. (b) The ways in which these changes affect and limit the development proposals arising from public policy aimed at alleviating social inequality (...) The study is based on a qualitative methodology focused on a case study and centered in interviews conducted during 2008 and 2009 to the main actors involved in the conflict over land in the northeast area of the province of Misiones, Argentina.The study shows the contradictions of public policy that proclaim productive growth and development in a legal framework for liberalization and deregulation in favor of large-scale transnational investment, underpinned by large-scale productive activities, highly demanding of land and water. Such investments, by contrast, have an insubstantial labor requirement (...)