Socio-environmental conflicts and land governance: a study of Chinese infrastructure investments in Argentina

Abstract

This article establishes a dialogue between the neo-Gramscian approach and Latin American Political Ecology by analyzing land governance – specifically attempts at land grabbing through Chinese infrastructure investments in Argentina. Building bridges between these two perspectives enables an application of Robert Cox’s framework to the study of socio-environmental conflicts inherent to land governance. The study of two land grabbing initiatives in Argentina, one that was suspended and one that continues with modifications, shows that social resistance can condition attempts at land control through investments and their execution. Consequently, the dialogue between these two theoretical perspectives not only revitalizes Cox’s thought but also highlights socio-environmental conflicts in environmental and nature governance processes as a new research direction for IPE.