Neighborhood, paradigms of argument, and social web:
An anthropological analysis of the controversy over an antenna in a small town in Buenos Aires Province
Keywords:
Neighborhood, paradigms of argument, normative repertoires, social web, public conflictAbstract
This article examines how neighborhood ties were configured as a paradigm of argument in a public controversy over the installation of a telecommunications tower in a small town in central Buenos Aires Province. Based on limited ethnographic immersion and a critical review of contributions from legal anthropology, the analysis explores how residents privileged a moral language centered on neighborhood relations to interpret events, assign responsibility, and organize claims. The article connects the notion of paradigm of argument with the concept of social web, understood as an intermediate category to observe the symbolic, legal, and political interdependencies in which the events are inscribed. The case illustrates how the predominance of the neighborhood framework displaced other interpretive repertoires —administrative, legal, environmental— with significant effects on the dynamics and outcome of the conflict. It is argued that actors did not resort to neighborhood discourse out of strategic calculation, but because they were immersed in a social web that defined their horizon of possibilities.
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