Mass Social Housing, Territorial Transformations, and State Space in the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Region

Abstract

Public policies can be understood as long long-term processes that continuously reshape stateterritoriality. This study aims to analyse the processes through which state space is produced in the implementation of social housing policies, focusing on how state spatiality is expressed, with a particular emphasis on the local scale. The research is structured around two analytical categories – strategies and projects – and two key dimensions: instrumental and territorial. The empirical analysis focuses on the case of the Federal Housing Plan in Mariano Acosta (Merlo, Buenos Aires) and Virrey del Pino (La Matanza, Buenos Aires). The findings show that, while the state operates across multiple scales, local governments play an essential and highly significant role by exerting control over territorial occupation and organisation. The study underscores the adaptability of social housing policy to territorial dynamics and local specifics.