Un puente en la zona transfronteriza: representaciones sociales, identidades y conflicto. El caso Posadas-Encarnación

the economic and territorial transformations produced in the context of the integration process of mercosur have influenced in those zones where the societies of differents states are face to face: the national borders. the inauguration of a bridge, with the consequent custom and legal reforms, has changed the ways of living in the argentinean-paraguayan border. the bridge that unites the argentine city of posadas with its paraguayan neighbor of encarnación is, from 1992, the scene of transnational social manifestations involving part of the paraguayan and argentinean societies. the objective of the present article focus on the analysis of the social representations and identital vindications generated in the argentinean-paraguayan border by the study of the written press of both countries. we would like to make particular emphasis on the operational symbolic borders generated by each society, as well as on the notions of identity, not only in relation to the "other", but also to the central power, that is, the national state.