SOCIAL POLICY IN LOCAL MANAGEMENT SPACES IN THE GREATER BUENOS AIRES AREA:: BETWEEN THE SUPRALOCAL POLITICAL-INSTITUTIONAL CONTEXT AND MUNICIPAL STRATEGIES (2023-2025)

Abstract

Local governance spaces are constructed at the interface of territorial particularities and the supra-local context. Within these spaces, social policy materialized through multi-scalar and multi-actor interventions unfolds. In this framework, the general objective is to analyze the configuration of municipal local governance spaces based on social policy in the Greater Buenos Aires metropolitan area following the implementation of the "La Libertad Avanza" (2023-2025) administration. The questions we address are: How are local governance spaces constructed after the transformations in social policy from the Frente de Todos government to "La Libertad Avanza" (2023-2025)? What are the particularities of these spaces, driven by municipal officials? What are the local practices of territorial actors in relation to the supra-local context to construct their local governance spaces based on social policy? Specifically, we propose, firstly, to describe the supra-local characteristics that contextualize local governance spaces. Secondly, this study characterizes the dynamics and strategies employed in local governance spaces, identifying the specific features of interventions in the field of social policy.

To this end, the theoretical and methodological approach considers territorial networks of proximity that interconnect with the specific characteristics of local actors, the direction of social programs, and links the supralocal context with the local one. The methodology employed is qualitative, combining a set of analytical techniques and strategies such as semi-structured interviews and the review of secondary sources comprised of regulations, discourses, and management reports. Interviews were conducted with municipal officials working in the municipal area responsible for social policy. The study focuses on the Municipality of La Matanza during the period 2023-2025. The article's contribution lies in identifying how, within a context of transformation in national government intervention, municipalities are renewing their strategies in local governance spaces related to the field of social policy. In this way, we show what these strategies are and in what specific supra-local contexts they are implemented.