Processes of Territorial Advance of Capitalism in Mendoza (Argentina): Transformations of Livestock Farming in the Turn of the 21st Century

• Published in: Territorios (Bogotá, Colombia) Vol. 30; no. 30; pp. 39 - 67
• Main Authors: Torres, Laura María, Pessolano, Daniela, Sales, Romina Giselle
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Spanish
• Published: Bogota Universidad del Rosario, Centro de Estudios Politicos e Internacionales 01.01.2014
• Subjects: 21st century; Accumulation; Argentina; Capital flow; Capitalism; Colonies & territories; Disappearance; Farming; Foreign capital; Livestock; Livestock production; Mendoza; Neoliberalism; Rural areas; Rural communities; Structural change; Territoriality; Transformation; Argentina
• ISSN: 0123-8418; 2215-7484
• DOI: 10.12804/territ30.2014.02

Since the 70s, and especially after the 90s, rural territories in Argentina undergo deep structural transformations. The new model of accumulation associated with the rise of neoliberalism will result in establishment of an agricultural financial model heavily relying on producing commodities for eport. Soybean production, regarded in Argentina as a paradigmatic case of the advance of capitalism on rurality, will have profound repercussions, first on Pampean territories and afterwards on etraPampas areas which constituted a second epansion front. On the country’s west, Mendoza’s territories, and each of the productive activities that make up their rurality, will eperience productive transformation and/or restructuring processes of varying magnitudes. In this contet, we analyze the transformations occurred in livestock farming in Mendoza, based on ehaustive analysis of statistical data and giving priority to a time span of 20 years (1988-2008). The hypothesis points out that Mendoza’s livestock production shows changes that match the trends towards concentration of production, introduction of technologies and inflows of foreign capital, from which follows disappearance of those social actors that do not count as competitive agents in the current economic system.