Escuela de Lenguas UNLP/Academic Writing/Journalism/Research Laboratory of Socio-Urban Bonds

The Laboratorio de Investigación de Lazos Socio-Urbanos (Research Laboratory of Socio-Urban Bonds, LILSU), is a unit of research founded in 2011 by an interdisciplinary group of teachers and researchers of the Facultad de Periodismo y Comunicación Social de la Universidad Nacional de La Plata (Journalism and Social Communication College of La Plata National University).

The first project of the LILSU was a research about the construction and regeneration of socio-cultural bonds in urban spaces regarding two critical moments: the breakdown between the modern and post modern ages; and the collapse of the neo-liberal model that could be clearly materialized in the Argentinean uprising in 2001. Since 2006, this conceptual framework was the key for several research projects that took place in popular social clubs of town centers, the movement of self organized neighborhood groups (studied since 2010), and other public institutions such as social promotion centers, public libraries, cultural groups, meal centers and cooperatives.

In the last projects, the analysis of other breakdowns and interventions in urban territories was added, particularly in the cities of La Plata, Berisso and Ensenada. These are closely related to socio-political, economic and environmental crises. In that sense, the latter investigation is linked to the heavy storms that hit the entire city of La Plata in 2013, causing extensive floods and all kinds of damages. The main objective of this analysis is to dig into the effect that the flooding had on the construction and regeneration of the social network facing the lack of response from the local authorities and the problematic relationship between the national and provincial state.

Even when the LILSU has a specific object of study, its potentialities of research include an extensive area of priority knowledge for Social Sciences in general and Communication in particular, that is, to understand and explain the complexity of the urban net from its origins: the social bonds that weave it.