Abstract

BENEDETTO, Andrea; DAVID, Diana  and  YANEZ, Lilibeth. Development and Competitiveness: inequality at the departments of Mendoza (Argentina). Rev. Univ. geogr. [online]. 2009, vol.18, n.1, pp. 63-80. ISSN 1852-4265.

In the late 90's, a new change in developmental approaches, strongly sponsored by the World Bank, became evident in the region. The International Monetary Fund -among other organizations-supported the implementation of measures aiming at strengthening national institutions and complementing solid macroeconomic policies and flexible labor markets, in order to guide the transition towards competitiveness. Within this context, the objective of this study is to compare two Departments of Mendoza Province (Argentina) that present markedly unequal social, geographical, and productive characteristics. The social and productive structure of the departments of Lavalle and Luján de Cuyo will be rebuilt, identifying regional actors, financial capacity, and institutional interactions, among other variables, in order to analyze the possibilities and constraints that empirically affect the competitiveness of these territories. Another aim of this work is to inquire about the association between competitiveness, regarded as a capacity to "withstand market competition", and the impact of this phenomenon on the living conditions of these populations and on the productive resources of the regions. A qualitative and quantitative methodological design will be implemented, with the intention of combining different kinds of data. The quantitative data will be extracted from secondary sources. As a result, some modest theoretical contributions are expected, that arise from the impact of such approaches and concepts that are not regularly subject to a critical validation of their implication. From an empirical point of view, this work expects to reach to a set of recommendations for action, that consider the existence of structural processes that determine the mobility of assets and resources, in a clear situation of inequality.

Keywords : Regional competitiveness; Inequality; Development.