Autor/es
Descripción
ver mas
Colaborador
Gutiérrez, Alicia Beatriz
Materias
Spatial Coverage
Idioma
spa
Extent
268 p.
Derechos
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
Atribución-NoComercial-SinDerivadas 2.0 Genérica (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Formato
application/pdf
Identificador
Cobertura
1001169
Córdoba (province)
Abstract
Within the framework of studies on urban poverty, social sciences have problematized the relationship established by lower class families and State as a result of the latter’s intervention while implementing its public policies. The objective of this work is to analyze the place of social policy within the system of Strategies for Social Reproduction regarding a group of families living in the Malvinas Argentinas municipal district, located in the outskirts of Córdoba City, Argentina. From a qualitative approach, the work methodology was based on participant observation and in-depth interviews with local residents and other key informants. The inquiry focused on problematizing the access to social policy within the framework of household economic strategies and work histories, considering the field of social policies as one of the instruments of social reproduction accessible to the dominated classes within the social space. To this end, the main social reproduction strategies (i.e.: housing, education and work) of the selected households were described focusing on the concept of class-bound modal trajectory. A diversity of experiences and “perceptions” in connection to a series of social policies of different levels as described by their “beneficiaries” (Jobless Heads of Households Plan– male and female –Plan Jefes y Jefas de Hogar Desocupados; Families for Social Inclusion - Familias por la Inclusión Social; Universal Child Allowance - Asignación Universal por Hijo; “Hands on the Job” National Plan for Local Development and Social Economy Plan - Plan Nacional de Desarrollo Local y Economía Social “Manos a la Obra”; the distribution by the municipal government of a food bag; and the organization of a fair of entrepreneurs and artisans in the community by the local government and a NGO) were analyzed.
We have focused on the feminization of social policy and the gender inequalities affecting women regarding the gender division of labor, since access to the labor market is compromised by the possibility of reconciling such access with the tasks entailed by reproductive labor in accordance to the various stages of the family life cycle. Hence, we have argued that social policy analysis cannot be undertaken without relating it to the behavior of the labor market and to the differential access possibilities to employment experienced by the different classes and groups, since their reproduction depends fundamentally on the sale of their labor-power, making this another key reproduction instrument among families in poverty contexts. We have furthermore hypothesized about the “failures” of social policy initiatives which entail different training and associativism stages resorting to the social capital of the poor and to an “entrepreneurship spirit” as alternatives to overcome insufficient incomes and implemented as bets on development.
In addition, we find that social policy plays a significant role in “moral disciplining” of low-income sectors and in structuring the labor force around concepts such as “timing”, “standstills” and also the uncertainties of everyday life. The networks among which social policies circulate are prone to build asymmetrical relationships which strengthen dependency bonds and it is within that exchange that symbolic representations about the social position held by each agent are built. We have also resorted to a bibliographical research and analyzed other secondary sources to reconstruct a brief historicization on the rise of social plans as the answer given by the state agent to the problems of unemployment and poverty. Based on this information and the analysis of the empirical data in our research, we reflected on the characteristics of the Argentine social policies model, its special features, and the place held by the poor as the subject of contemporary debates.
On the other hand, we have analyzed the exchange networks within which reciprocity relationships of various types are built with agents holding other class positions within the global social space. In particular, we have focused on the political domination bonds established with agents of the municipal government, describing how the circulation of various types of goods and services, within the framework of the distribution of state aid, constitutes a valuable resource as a means to accumulate political capital sought by different types of agents. In this way we intend to portray, from a relational approach, the political arena as a space which allows the articulation of diverse ways of social reproduction, involving agents holding different positions among the social classes existing in Córdoba’s social space.
This research can be classified within the framework of a line of previous works which postulate that poverty, rather than being a “marginal” or “excluded” class position within the social ensemble, is an outcome resulting from the ways it articulates and relates with the rest of the class positions. From our point of view, social policy is understood as one of the mechanisms through which the state agent shapes the relationship between capital and labor force under a capitalist production model. Thus, we have aimed through this work to understand in which way social policy produces and (re)produces social reality and, in turn, through it, comprehend other expressions of social dominance at local level.
Lastly, this work includes a series of epistemological and methodological considerations about the challenges and the learning process involved in the execution of this investigation.
We have focused on the feminization of social policy and the gender inequalities affecting women regarding the gender division of labor, since access to the labor market is compromised by the possibility of reconciling such access with the tasks entailed by reproductive labor in accordance to the various stages of the family life cycle. Hence, we have argued that social policy analysis cannot be undertaken without relating it to the behavior of the labor market and to the differential access possibilities to employment experienced by the different classes and groups, since their reproduction depends fundamentally on the sale of their labor-power, making this another key reproduction instrument among families in poverty contexts. We have furthermore hypothesized about the “failures” of social policy initiatives which entail different training and associativism stages resorting to the social capital of the poor and to an “entrepreneurship spirit” as alternatives to overcome insufficient incomes and implemented as bets on development.
In addition, we find that social policy plays a significant role in “moral disciplining” of low-income sectors and in structuring the labor force around concepts such as “timing”, “standstills” and also the uncertainties of everyday life. The networks among which social policies circulate are prone to build asymmetrical relationships which strengthen dependency bonds and it is within that exchange that symbolic representations about the social position held by each agent are built. We have also resorted to a bibliographical research and analyzed other secondary sources to reconstruct a brief historicization on the rise of social plans as the answer given by the state agent to the problems of unemployment and poverty. Based on this information and the analysis of the empirical data in our research, we reflected on the characteristics of the Argentine social policies model, its special features, and the place held by the poor as the subject of contemporary debates.
On the other hand, we have analyzed the exchange networks within which reciprocity relationships of various types are built with agents holding other class positions within the global social space. In particular, we have focused on the political domination bonds established with agents of the municipal government, describing how the circulation of various types of goods and services, within the framework of the distribution of state aid, constitutes a valuable resource as a means to accumulate political capital sought by different types of agents. In this way we intend to portray, from a relational approach, the political arena as a space which allows the articulation of diverse ways of social reproduction, involving agents holding different positions among the social classes existing in Córdoba’s social space.
This research can be classified within the framework of a line of previous works which postulate that poverty, rather than being a “marginal” or “excluded” class position within the social ensemble, is an outcome resulting from the ways it articulates and relates with the rest of the class positions. From our point of view, social policy is understood as one of the mechanisms through which the state agent shapes the relationship between capital and labor force under a capitalist production model. Thus, we have aimed through this work to understand in which way social policy produces and (re)produces social reality and, in turn, through it, comprehend other expressions of social dominance at local level.
Lastly, this work includes a series of epistemological and methodological considerations about the challenges and the learning process involved in the execution of this investigation.
Título obtenido
Doctora de la Universidad de Buenos Aires en Ciencias Sociales
Institución otorgante
Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Sociales