Abstract

PICONE, Sabrina Elizabeth; LISCOVSKY, Iris Josefina  and  SCHWEITZER, Alejandro Fabián. Within the Borders of Sustainable Tourism: Inequalities, Tensions, and Continuities in the Production of Space in El Chaltén (Santa Cruz, Argentina). Rev. pueblos front. digit. [online]. 2022, vol.17, e566.  Epub Mar 21, 2023. ISSN 1870-4115.  https://doi.org/10.22201/cimsur.18704115e.2022.v17.566.

El Chaltén is located on the border between Argentina and Chile in the Southern Patagonia on the Argentinian side. Its main economic activity is tourism associated with protected natural areas. Although this activity is presented as respecting the principles of sustainability, it causes a diversity of territorial problems. Using political ecology approaches and participatory data collection, a spatial study was carried out using an analysis of family livelihoods. The existence of economic inequality and social sectorization processes, as well as the saturation of infrastructure and public services are among the most important findings. This research concludes that tourism policies using a discourse of sustainability encounter local continuities and tensions that either promote or hinder the expansion of green capitalism and in practice fail to include social participation and empowerment.

Keywords : political ecology; production of space; livelihood; sustainable tourism; Southern Patagonia Argentina.