Resumen

GARGANO, Cecilia. Socio-environmental issues, experts and crossroads in the Argentine countryside. Letras Verdes [online]. 2020, n.28, pp.49-66. ISSN 1390-6631.  https://doi.org/10.17141/letrasverdes.28.2020.4426.

From an analytical framework that combines contributions from the history and philosophy of science, this article analyses the role of experts and scientific-technological knowledge in the current agricultural model in Argentina, dominated by transgenic agriculture. We reflect on the role of hegemonic scientific practices in the material transformations of the rural space and in the discourses on its functioning, taking three situations that involve the State, the companies and the rural communities. Through various specialized secondary sources and primary sources (graphic press, institutional documents, interviews with scientists, technicians and rural residents), we study the connection between the ways in which this knowledge is produced, the voices that influence the conformation of the research agendas, and the deep socio-environmental problems that shape the Argentine rural area. Finally, we analyze the role of this knowledge and of the political-institutional frameworks that affect its commodification and that of nature. As a result, we expose the intervention of this knowledge in shaping the current agricultural model as what has been called “a hellish alternative”, given that it is conceived and built as a space inexorably destined to extract portions of a commercialized nature, with consequent social and environmental implications.

Palabras clave : Argentina; environment; experts; knowledge; society; transgenic crops.

        · resumen en Español     · texto en Español     · Español ( pdf )