ALTOS HORNOS ZAPLA (PALPALÁ, JUJUY) STEEL CENTER PRIVATIZATION: IMPACTS AND SOCIAL MEMORY. SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION IN THE 90’s FROM THE EXPERIENCES OF AGENTS

Abstract

The privatization of Altos Hornos Zapla meant the end of a social and economical project conceived from modernity. Until the early 90's, decisions were monopolized by the state company, even if it shared jurisdiction with the municipality of Palpalá. This state absence represented later the time of emergence of civil society as protagonist of social life. Social memory is selective and therefore significant rather than neutral, as the recurrence of certain stories account for the change log. Through a series of interviews, we present some of those elements set out in the social memory, identifying changes in everyday practices and ways to address them. We work with a community leader, a merchant of Bolivian origin, and a former professional in the state company. The social changes following privatization were fixed in the form of a crisis of a world of uncertainties, as well as different ways to address them as status and ties of the agents. This crisis would also have a sense for the people of Palpalá, as a starting point in the conversion of social relations and practices of agents. Interestingly consider further the analysis of registration by palpaleños of these changes associated with the privatization of Zapla to study the changes in the agencies under conflicting processes in the early 90's.