Communal systems, statehoods and governance. The responses of communities in defense of common goods in Santiago del Estero, Argentina

Abstract

The organizational processes of rural subjects have been the focus of public policy in the sector in recent decades, where these far from being passive subjects, recipients of public policies, local actors dispute the meanings about their worlds of life developing strategies that allow them to interlace and dialogue with what they want to impose from the outside. This work analyzes the representations, motivations and logics of behavior displayed by public institutions and rural subjects that coexist in communal systems in Santiago del Estero, Argentina. More precisely, what interests to study are the adaptation / resistance / subsumption strategies of the subjects in defense of the common goods that participate in the production and commercialization processes, and the institutionality that results from these meetings to sustain the governance of said goods and of the territory as a whole. Two experiences of communal systems will be addressed, Colonia Jaime and the Santa Catalina community enclosure. In the study the communal is analyzed from the economic practices, the institutional design and the shared ethical principles, recognizing the dynamic and procedural character. The information was obtained from participant observation, in-depth interviews, and secondary sources. Finally, we find in the communal systems what are the control, regulation and / or support devices deployed by the state organisms at the communal (institutional, productive and commercial) practices and on the other, the mechanisms of resistance, negotiation and / or adaptation of the community members.