THE “RED ZONES” AND “THE NEIGHBOURS”: BORDERS IN THE PUBLIC SPACE AND CONSTRUCTION OF HUMAN RIGHTS

Abstract

The aim of this article is to inquire some aspects of the relational structure between commercial sex and the
administration of public space in La Plata city. Regarding that, I’m interested in thinking the tensions currently in
force in the light of the politics, actors and territory linked to sexual comercial offer of transvestite, transsexual
and transgender people in the public space, starting from an analysis of the recent zoning for the practice of
commercial sex, by the creation of a red zone in the city after of an agreement between the municipal authorities,
the civil association Otrans, so with the organized “residents” for this purpose, representatives of an academic
community and of a church of the neighbourhood where the phenomenon under analysis has been having place.
Starting from that event, and from some others considerations before its configuration, my objective is to reflect
on the borders that are supposed in the installation of red zonesand the ideal figurations of the public space that
its existence suppose, as well as the ways of characterization that take place as a symbolic expression. This
presentation will be crossed by the question about the notions of citizenship involved in these social tensions as
well as the scope and limits of the normative recognition of transvestite and transsexual identities from a human
rights optic.