The public as plural. Popular economy and agroecological workplaces in Argentina (2015-2023)

Arpini, Emilia Nora (2025) The public as plural. Popular economy and agroecological workplaces in Argentina (2015-2023). PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

Across Latin America, diverse local actors engage in the defence and creation of public initiatives against processes of extractivism, privatisation, and dispossession. Emerging as alternatives to the hegemony of agribusiness, and revitalising labour organisations, in Argentina, popular economy and agroecological movements are reimagining the public. On formerly disused public lands, they create workplaces to progress towards social inclusion and environmental regeneration.

In this thesis, I show how their practices express a distinct form of publicness. I argue that publicness can be understood in three interconnected ways. First, it takes a plural form. Through collaboration among different groups of participants at the local level, a mosaic of various actors contributes to the construction of popular economy and agroecological initiatives. This plural mosaic can include the participation of state agencies. However, these initiatives transcend a state-centred form of publicness, since they depend on the commitment of popular economy workers alongside various environmental activists. Second, at the heart of this plural form of publicness is a specific type of participant subjectivity: that of the worker and producer. The centrality of workers underpins the popular and agroecological form of publicness. Third, this publicness involves the active transformation of concrete spatialities, places that are reimagined and reconstructed by participants to become productive. In these sites, economic production is oriented towards encompassing socio-environmental aims.

A qualitative study examining two cases from the provinces of Entre Ríos and Buenos Aires enables me to construct concepts grounded in the experiences of two significant agroecological and popular economy movements in Argentina: the UTT and the UTEP. The cases also allow to identify the differences in local government support for the initiatives. My findings are rooted in the socio-political context of Argentina post-2015, characterised by increasing social mobilisation of popular sectors. My analysis provides situated conceptualisations and analytical insights to support research on the emerging forms of participatory publicness in the 21st century.

• Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
• Qualification Level: Doctoral
• Subjects: G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GF Human ecology. Anthropogeography; G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GN Anthropology; H Social Sciences > HC Economic History and Conditions; H Social Sciences > HM Sociology
• Colleges/Schools: College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences
• Funder's Name: European Research Council (ERC)
• Supervisor's Name: Hume, Professor Mo and Cumbers, Professor Andrew
• Date of Award: 2025
• Depositing User: Theses Team
• Unique ID: glathesis:2025-85008
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 08 Apr 2025 10:17
• Last Modified: 10 Apr 2025 15:50
• Thesis DOI: 10.5525/gla.thesis.85008
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/85008