Una revisión de los conceptos de "territorios equilibrados" y "región". Procesos de construcción y deconstrucción

• Autores: Marta Isabel Kollmann
• Localización: Theomai: estudios sobre sociedad, naturaleza y desarrollo, ISSN-e 1515-6443, Nº. 11, 2005
• Idioma: español
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• Resumen

  • The object of this article is to analyze the two concepts involved in the expression ¿territorial equilibrium¿. The concept of ¿territory¿ is traditionally expressed as a concretion of political and spatial institutionalized units (i.e. States, Provinces, Counties, etc.). However, this concept must now be reviewed since a territory; a symbolic space (Szamosi, 1986) is principally delimited by power relations (Sacks, 1991 and Foucault, 1979). These relationships submerge us into unpredictable spaces for the logics of life itself and the changes of power or ¿influencing capacity¿ that the different social actors (both public and private) acquire in non-institutionalized spaces. The territories are the means and the results of actions that construct and disturb the environments of political units.

    We are of the opinion that the environmental problems within those territories should be comprehended as complex systems, characterized by the ¿uncertainty¿. This uncertainty is not exclusively related with uncontrolled physical disasters, but with the idea that the sole construction of social beings is the result of life experiences, information, degrees of power, laws or rules of behavior and symbologies that do not respond to fixed social structures and which consequently act in an unpredictable manner. The complexity arises when the phenomenons are such that they are unable to be systematically dissociated, for they act randomly (physically and socially).

    Given the above considerations, we wonder if it is still possible to talk about equilibrium. At present, territories are constantly changing. The dilemma on systems¿ equilibrium is troubling other sciences aswell, such as physics and biology. Amongst geographers, the discussion has arisen regarding the traditional concepts of territory and region. We will continue elaborating these theoretical notions by analyzing the example of the ¿Northeastern Region¿ in Argentina.