From Myth to Reality: Metal Mining, Psycho-sphere and Labor Market in the Province of Santa Cruz (Argentina)

Abstract

In the current historical period, the new functions of the international division of labor and the modern uses of territory operate, where they are installed, as forms of accumulation by dispossession. The implementation and continuity of these functions require the production of a psycho-sphere, understood as the set of ideological legitimizations that is built in order to ensure the social or collective consensus on the adoption of certain hegemonic territorial modernization pattern. The aim of this paper is to study the relationship between the boom of the metal mining and the employment generation in Argentina between the late 1990s and today, focusing the analysis on the province of Santa Cruz. The article develops the contrast between the ‘trickle-down effect’ myth that was spread both by the corporative speech and the state fable, and the reality of the labor market of this sector at the national, provincial and local levels. Some key categories are analyzed in order to meet this purpose, such as the generation of direct employment, the geographical origin of the workforce, and the precariousness of labor conditions.