Appropriation-expropriation Processes and Generation of Socio-economic Inequalities in a Periphral Agrarain Structure: The Case of the Cotton Crisis and Soy Expansion in Chaco State (Argentina)
The new role of Latin America as a provider of natural resources for the world economy is linked with the process of the re-organization of global capitalism. The case of soy expansion in Argentina constitutes for an example of this new role. In Argentina, this growth has produced an expansion of agricultural frontiers towards several marginal zones, and displacement of traditional crops. This research proposal tries to explore the manifestations in which the “appropriation-expropriation” processes in a specific agrarian structure (which is characterized by its marginal position in the national development) affect the production and reinforcement of old and new social inequalities. The empirical support for this research will be the case of an agrarian structure in the Chaco state (Argentina). We will try to produce knowledge about the forms in which the deepening of capitalist development (crisis of cotton crop and expansion of soy crop) in the state has made an impact on the agrarian structure. The Chaco state is characterized for its marginal position in the Argentinean economic structure and for the presence of a massive stratum of small producers. It is possible to ask: does the expansion of crop linked to “agro business” reinforce its peripheral position or does it revert it? Has this process produced new inequalities inside this agrarian structure? Has it reconfigured old inequalities? Which is the territorial manifestation of this soy expansion process? Is it possible to identify territorial inequalities associated with these differentiations inside the province?