From being wild to being domesticated.

Presence and transformation of urban water in Rosario, Argentina.

Abstract

Rosario (Santa Fe, Argentina) has always had water spaces within its urban layout which have historically characterized the city. Just as in the cases of many other cities, Rosario’s relationship with water has implied a historical challenge throughout an urban process dealing with groups of individuals, devices and artefacts conceived for specific water spaces.
Water in its natural state along with its ties with land, i.e., wild water, is an object whose presence -from the urban point of view- deserves particular attention. Within the Argentine dialectic “civilization or barbarism” framework and taking into account the particular case of wild water subjected to domestication, the hypothesis of the work is that domestication was developed as an urbanistic ideology. As a praxis issue, it was grounded on the political thought which led to outcomes that went beyond the transformation of water spaces and exerted their influence on the entire city shaping.
The aim of this work is to interpret this wild/domesticated water dichotomy through conceptual discussions about spatial injustice, i.e., a set of social asymmetries that results from the capitalist city.