New forms of "governance", social participation and conflict. Some reflections on the processes of re-urbanization of villas in the City of Buenos Aires

The objective of the article is to analyze the processes of social participation and conflict generated within the framework of the Re-urbanization Program of Villa 31 and 31 bis promoted by the Government of the City of Buenos Aires (GCBA) (Argentina) since 2016 until today. Through a qualitative methodology of construction of primary data coming from in-depth interviews (to inhabitants of the town, members of social organizations, officials and state workers) and participant observation in dialogues with technical actors driven by the executing agency of the political, it was evident that there is great discontent of the inhabitants around the instances of social participation wielded by the program, with high levels of territorial conflict. This implies that the permanent mechanisms of participation in the execution of policy are not guarantee per I know that all the actors have the same weight in the decision making. Rather, the different techniques deployed by the new governance refer to practices of legitimation of a housing policy that implicitly seeks the valorization of the neoliberal city, far from building instances of consensus and real participation that result in the reduction of socio-urban inequality. Keywords: governance, social participation, conflict, urban redevelopment, Buenos Aires. El objetivo del articulo consiste en analizar los procesos de participacion social y conflicto generados en el marco del Programa de Reurbanizacion de la Villa 31 y 31 bis impulsado por el Gobierno de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires--GCBA--(Argentina) desde el 2016 hasta la actualidad. A traves de una metodologia cualitativa de construccion de datos primarios provenientes de entrevistas en profundidad (a habitantes de la villa, integrantes de organizaciones sociales, funcionarios y trabajadores estatales) y observacion participante en mesas de dialogo con actores tecnicos impulsadas por el organismo ejecutor de la politica, se pudo evidenciar que existe gran descontento de los habitantes en torno a las instancias de participacion social esgrimidas por el programa, con altos niveles de conflictividad territorial. Esto da cuenta que los permanentes mecanismos de participacion en la ejecucion de politica no son garantia per se de que todos los actores tengan el mismo peso en la toma de decisiones. Mas bien las distintas tecnicas desplegadas por la nueva gobernanza remiten a practicas de legitimacion de una politica habitacional que implicitamente busca la valorizac