Modernity-coloniality in the construction of the techno-scientific hegemony of reinforced concrete in the dependent councountries

Abstract

In this text, we will follow the construction of the techno-scientific hegemony of reinforced concrete, in the context of dependent Latin American capitalism. Our intention is to demonstrate some fundamental historical moments in the construction of this hegemony, which began with architectural modernism in early last century. After this, we follow its consolidation from the 1960s onwards with housing policies. Finally, with the deepening and the expansion of its horizon, verified with the development of the housing production policies of the conciliation governments, in the beginning of the 21st century. In this period, we only intend to identify some elements that marked the reorganization of the productive-industrial sector of civil construction and the production of built space, especially of popular housing. This hegemony represented a new stage of capitalist techno science, loaded with an epistemic racism, which subjugated other techno scientific options, other constructive practices of space production, especially popular housing, creating new contradictions to access to it and to the exploitation and alienation of work. To this end, we will be guided by the Marxist Theory of Dependence, and decolonial thought, to understand this hegemony, accompanied by the sharpening of the exploitation of the workforce on construction sites.