Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-nmvwc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-28T07:59:40.512Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Asentamientos and Cantegriles: New Poverty and the Moral Dangers of Proximity in Uruguayan Squatter Settlements

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 September 2022

Julienne Corboz
Julienne Corboz*
Affiliation:
La Trobe University
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

This article analyzes new forms of distinction and inequality generated within Uruguayan squatter settlements as a result of neoliberal policies, class polarization, and the downward mobility of previously integrated populations that have migrated to the informal urban periphery. Based on ethnographic research in Montevideo, this article shows how newly impoverished Uruguayans have dealt with their new spatial proximity and ever-increasing socioeconomic proximity to chronic poverty through the maintenance of symbolic boundaries between themselves and the chronic poor. This boundary work is dependent on the reproduction of a series of moral oppositions, highly reminiscent of hegemonic discourses on the culture of poverty, which cast the chronic poor as dirty, lacking in values, apathetic, disorganized, and responsible for their own poverty.

Resumo

Resumo

Este artículo analiza nuevas formas de distinción y desigualdad generadas dentro de los asentamientos irregulares uruguayos, resultantes de las políticas neoliberales, la polarización de la clase social, y el descenso en la escala social que poblaciones anteriormente integradas han experimentado al emigrar a la periferia urbana informal. Basado en una investigación etnográfica hecha en Montevideo, este artículo muestra cómo los nuevos pobres uruguayos han confrontado su nueva proximidad espacial, y cada vez mayor proximidad socioeconómica, a la pobreza crónica, a través del mantenimiento de los límites simbólicos entres sí mismos y los pobres crónicos. Esta distinción depende de la reproducción de una serie de oposiciones morales que aparecen como discursos hegemónicos de la cultura de la pobreza, que clasifican a los pobres crónicos como sucios, faltos de valores, apáticos, desorganizados, y responsables por su propia pobreza.

Type
Research Article
Information
Latin American Research Review , Volume 48 , Issue 3 , 2013 , pp. 44 - 62
Copyright
Copyright © 2013 by the Latin American Studies Association

References

Álvarez-Rivadulla, Maria José 2000 “Asentamientos irregulares montevideanos: La desafiliación resistida.” Monografía de Grado, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de la República.Google Scholar
Álvarez-Rivadulla, Maria José 2009 “Contentious Urbanization from Below: Land Squatting in Montevideo, Uruguay.” PhD diss., University of Pittsburgh.Google Scholar
Auyero, Javier 1999 “This Is a Lot Like the Bronx, Isn't It? Lived Experiences of Marginality in an Argentine Slum.” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 23:45–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Auyero, Javier, and Swistun, Débora 2009 Flammable: Environmental Suffering in an Argentine Shantytown. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Ávila, Soledad, Baraibar, Ximena, Errandonea, Fernando, and Kaztman, Rubén 2003 “Modalidades de participación popular urbana en los 90: Los asentamientos irregulares en el área metropolitana de Montevideo.” Working Paper #02-UR-02. Austin: Center for the Study of Urbanization and Internal Migration in Developing Countries, University of Texas.Google Scholar
Baker, Judy 2001 Social Exclusion in Urban Uruguay. Washington, DC: World Bank.Google Scholar
Bhabha, Homi 1998 “Anxiety in the Midst of Difference.” PoLAR 21 (1): 123–137.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bon Espasandín, Mario 1963 Cantegriles. Montevideo: Tupac Amaru.Google Scholar
Bourdieu, Pierre, and Wacquant, Loïc 1992 An Invitation to Reflexive Sociology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Caldeira, Teresa P. R. 2000 City of Walls: Crime, Segregation, and Citizenship in São Paulo. Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chavez, Daniel 2005 “Del frente amplio a la nueva mayoría: La izquierda uruguaya ante la perspectiva del gobierno.” In La nueva izquierda en América Latina: Sus orígenes y trayectoria futura, edited by Garavito, Cesar A. Rodríguez, Barrett, Patrick S., and Chavez, Daniel, 147–190. Bogotá: Grupo Editorial Norma.Google Scholar
Cohen, Anthony P. 1994 “Culture, Identity and the Concept of Boundary.” Revista de Antropología Social 3:49–61.Google Scholar
Douglas, Mary 1966 Purity and Danger: An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
ECLAC (Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean) 2006 Social Panorama of Latin America. Santiago de Chile: ECLAC.Google Scholar
Errandonea, Alfredo 1989 Las clases sociales en el Uruguay. Montevideo: Centro Latinoamericano de Economía Humana (CLAEH).Google Scholar
Friedman, Jonathan 1999 “Class Formation, Hybridity and Ethnification in Declining Global Hegemonies.” In Globalisation and the Asia Pacific: Contested Territories, edited by Olds, Kris, Dicken, Peter, Kelly, Philip F., Kong, Lily, and Young, Henry Wai-Chung, 183–201. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
François, Graña, and de Sierra, Gerónimo 2004 “Uruguay: Pobreza y exclusión duraderas. De la integración social a la fragmentación estructural.” El Uruguay desde la Sociología II: Reunión de investigadores del Departamento de Sociología (Montevideo) 2:249–261.Google Scholar
Hall, Gary, and Wortham, Simon 1996 “Rethinking Authority: Interview with Homi K. Bhabha.” Angelaki 2:59–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hannerz, Ulf 1969 Soulsidc: Inquiries into Ghetto Culture and Community. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Harvey, David 2005 A Brief History of Neoliberalism. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoffman, Kelly, and Centeno, Miguel Angel 2003 “The Lopsided Continent: Inequality in Latin America.” Annual Review of Sociology 29:363–390.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
IMM (Intendencia Municipal de Montevideo) 2003 La pobreza medida por el índice de carencias críticas y por los ingresos. Montevideo: Unidad de Estadística Municipal, IMM.Google Scholar
IMM (Intendencia Municipal de Montevideo) 2004 Evolución de la pobreza en Montevideo. Montevideo: Unidad de Estadística Municipal, IMM.Google Scholar
INTEC (Instituto Técnico para la Promoción del Desarrollo Integral) 1995 Relevamiento de asentamientos irregulares de Montevideo. Montevideo: INTEC.Google Scholar
Katz, Michael 1989 The Undeserving Poor: From the War on Poverty to the War on Welfare. New York: Pantheon.Google Scholar
Kaztman, Rubén 1996 Marginalidad e integración social en Uruguay. Montevideo: Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe.Google Scholar
Kaztman, Rubén 2006 “Spatial Segregation and the Hardening of Poverty.” Documento de Trabajo del Programa de Investigación sobre Integración, Pobreza y Exclusión Social. Montevideo: Universidad Católica del Uruguay.Google Scholar
Kaztman, Rubén, Corbo, Gabriel, Filgueira, Fernando, Furtado, Magdalena, Gelber, Denise, Retamoso, Alejandro, and Rodríguez, Federico 2004 “La ciudad fragmentada: Repuestas de los sectores populares urbanos a las transformaciones del mercado y del territorio en Montevideo.” Working Paper no. 04-04b. Princeton, NJ: Center for Migration and Development/Princeton University.Google Scholar
Kaztman, Rubén, and Retamoso, Alejandro 2005 “Segregación espacial, empleo y pobreza en Montevideo.” Revista de la CEPAL 85:131–148.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kessler, Gabriel, and Virgilio, Maria M. Di 2005 “The New Poverty in Argentina and Latin America.” In Becoming Global and the New Poverty of Cities, edited by Hanley, Lisa M., Ruble, Blair A., and Tulchin, Joseph S., 79–117. Washington, DC: Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.Google Scholar
Lewis, Oscar 1966 La Vida: A Puerto Rican Family in the Culture of Poverty—San Juan and New York. New York: Vintage Books.Google Scholar
Luna, Juan Pablo 2007 “Frente Amplio and the Crafting of a Social Democratic Alternative in Uruguay.” Latin American Politics and Society 49 (4): 1–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Masquelier, Adeline 2005 “Dirt, Undress, and Difference: An Introduction.” In Dirt, Undress, and Difference: Critical Perspectives on the Body's Surface, edited by Masquelier, Adeline, 1–33. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Matza, David 1966 “The Disreputable Poor.” In Social Structure and Mobility in Economic Development, edited by Smelser, Neil J. and Lipset, Seymour Martin, 310–339. Chicago: Aldine.Google Scholar
Mesa-Lago, Carmelo 1997 “Social Welfare Reform in the Context of Economic-Political Liberalization: Latin American Cases.” World Development 25 (4): 497–517.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mingione, Enzo 1996 “Urban Poverty in the Advanced Industrial World: Concepts, Analysis and Debates.” In Urban Poverty and the Underclass: A Reader, edited by Mingione, E., 3–40. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell Publishing.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Minujin, Alberto 1995 “Squeezed: The Middleclass in Latin America.” Environment and Urbanization 7 (2): 153–165.Google Scholar
Minujin, Alberto, and Kessler, Gabriel 1995 La nueva pobreza en la Argentina. Buenos Aires: Planeta.Google Scholar
Morris, Lydia 1994 Dangerous Classes: The Underclass and Social Citizenship. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Ortner, Sherry B. 1998 “Identities: The Hidden Life of Class.” Journal of Anthropological Research 54 (1): 1–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ortner, Sherry B. 2006 Anthropology and Social Theory: Culture, Power, and the Acting Subject. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Perlman, Janice E. 1976 The Myth of Marginality: Urban Poverty and Politics in Rio de Janeiro. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Perlman, Janice E. 2006 “The Metamorphosis of Marginality: Four Generations in the Favelas of Rio de Janeiro.” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 606 (1): 154–177.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Portes, Alejandro 1985 “Latin American Class Structures: Their Composition and Change during the Last Decades.” Latin American Research Review 20 (3): 7–39.Google Scholar
Portes, Alejandro, and Hoffman, Kelly 2003 “Latin American Class Structures: Their Composition and Change during the Neoliberal Era.” Latin American Research Review 38 (1): 41–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Portes, Alejandro, and Roberts, Bryan R. 2005 “The Free-Market City: Latin American Urbanization in the Years of the Neoliberal Experiment.” Studies in Comparative International Development 40 (1): 43–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Renfrew, Daniel 2007 ‘“We Are All Contaminated’: Lead Poisoning and Urban Environmental Politics in Uruguay.” PhD diss., Binghamton University, State University of New York.Google Scholar
Roberts, Bryan R., and Portes, Alejandro 2006 “Coping with the Free Market City: Collective Action in Six Latin American Cities at the End of the Twentieth Century.” Latin American Research Review 41 (2): 57–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robinson, William I. 2004 “Global Crisis and Latin America.” Bulletin of Latin American Research 23 (2): 135–153.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Skeggs, Beverley 2004 Class, Self, Culture. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Veiga, Daniel 2006 “Desigualdad y exclusión social: Estudio de caso del Gran Montevideo.” El Uruguay desde la Sociología 4:161–175.Google Scholar
Veiga, Daniel, and Rivoir, Anna L. 2006 Sociedad y territorio: Montevideo y el área metropolitana. Montevideo: Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de la República.Google Scholar
Vidart, Daniel 1998 La trama de la identidad nacional, Vol. 2, El diálogo ciudad-campo. Montevideo: Ediciones de la Banda Oriental.Google Scholar
Wacquant, Loïc 1997 “Three Pernicious Premises in the Study of the American Ghetto.” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 21 (2): 341–353.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wacquant, Loïc 1999 “Urban Marginality in the Coming Millennium.” Urban Studies 36 (10): 1639–1647.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ward, Peter M. 2004 “Introduction and Overview: Marginality Then and Now.” Latin American Research Review 39 (1): 183–187.CrossRefGoogle Scholar