Alternative legalities and land occupations in a city of Patagonia Argentina

Abstract

As a result of an ethnographic work on land occupations in Comodoro Rivadavia (Chubut,
Argentina), the article discusses interpretations that reduce a complex social phenomenon to
a view of land occupations as a simple “illegal act”. In opposition to the approaches of land
occupation as a “usurpation,” those who occupied lands hold criteria that legitimize their actions
which, in turn, constitute a tense relationship with the formal legal order. The purpose of the text
is to analyze these discursive practices aimed at countering the dominant readings that disqualify
them from illegality.
Seeking to deal with the hegemonic discourses that circumscribe land occupations to a legal.
criterion, the first section is organized around the weight that informality had in the historical
construction of Latin American cities. Taking Commodore Rivadavia as a witness, in the
second section the State is dimensioned as a promoter of urban informality. The third section
conveys the empirical analysis of the criteria of legitimacy as popular responses to the dominant
views of occupations as “illegal acts”. Finally, the conclusions propose a revision of the main
argumentative lines developed throughout the work.