Developing the Moonland: The Yacyreta Hydroelectric High Dam and economic expansion in Argentina.
Item
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Title
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Developing the Moonland: The Yacyreta Hydroelectric High Dam and economic expansion in Argentina.
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Identifier
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AAI8914782
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identifier
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8914782
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Creator
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Ribeiro, Gustavo Lins.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Eric R. Wolf
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Date
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1988
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Anthropology, Cultural | Sociology, Industrial and Labor Relations | Sociology, Social Structure and Development
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Abstract
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In this dissertation I analyze how international, national, regional and local factors influence the reality experienced by the population participating at the construction of the Yacyreta Hydroelectric High Dam. This Argentine-Paraguayan project under construction on the Parana River, is a unit of analysis that clearly condenses different levels of integration. The articulation of international and national power groups, represented by financial and industrial capital as well as by the state, is central to understand the reality of social actors participating at the project. The development of Yacyreta is controlled by an "institutional triangle" formed by the project's owner, a powerful Argentine-Paraguayan state-owned corporation; the consultant, a consortium of international and national corporations; and the main contractor, another consortium of international and national firms. The analysis of the bidding for Yacyreta's two largest contracts provides the basis for the formulation of a process I call "consortiation": the means through which international, national, regional/local firms are articulated within a large-scale project. This process defines, for instance, the characteristics of the ethnic segmentation of the labor force involved in the construction of the dam. The settlement pattern created by Yacyreta is analyzed in relationship to project's internal stratification. The formation of Yacyreta's labor market implies distinct migratory experiences and associated social changes according to different positions occupied within the project's hierarchy. Local people enter the project mostly in its lowest positions. The main internal differentiations of Yacyreta's labor market are between the Argentine and Paraguayan segments and between these segments and the foreign managerial elite. Major civil engineering corporations have an interest in retaining their skilled labor force from one work site to another. Projects are thus associated with specific migratory circuits that operate within a national territory and within the world system. Large-scale projects' migratory circuits are 'inhabited' by the bichos-de-obra, or work site animals, a nomad population that develops its entire labor life in large-scale project environments. The creation and persistence of the bicho-de-obra identity is analyzed. The relationship between projects and development is critically discussed.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
