Building from heterogeneity: the decomposition and recomposition of the working class viewed from the “popular economy” in Argentina

Autores
Fernandez Alvarez, Maria Ines
Año de publicación
2018
Idioma
inglés
Tipo de recurso
artículo
Estado
versión publicada
Descripción
In this statement, I draw on the results of ongoing ethnographical research in Argentina with cooperatives of street vendors that are part of the Confederation of Workers of the Popular Economy (CTEP), an organization formed in 2011. The CTEP defines itself as a trade union whose aim is to represent the heterogeneous universe of wageless workers engaged in a diversity of socio-economic activities. These activities include, for example, waste-pickers, subcontracted textile workers, street vendors, farmers, artisans and car-keepers, and state-driven cooperative workers who perform tasks of maintenance of urban public infrastructure (squares, streets, and sidewalks) self-construction and maintenance of housing and other cooperatives derived from initially self-managed processes. It is a population, where very dissimilar trajectories, experiences, and characteristics prevail. I examine the efforts made by the CTEP to forge a unity from this diversity by using the notion of “popular economy” and how this notion came to be constructed as a political claim category that collectively encompasses heterogeneous work experiences and trajectories. Taking this idea as the starting point, I will discuss the way in which the process of political organization that the CTEP embodies can contribute to anthropological debates about the notion of class in the contemporary capitalism. I contend that this organization develops a process of collective construction that makes this heterogeneity a strength and a subject in its own right, rather than a means to the end of transforming workers in the popular economy to fully waged workers.
Fil: Fernandez Alvarez, Maria Ines. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Filosofía y Letras. Instituto de Ciencias Antropológicas; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina
Materia
ARGENTINA
POLITICS
POPULAR ECONOMY
SOCIAL MOVEMENTS
TRADE UNION
WORKING CLASS
Nivel de accesibilidad
acceso abierto
Condiciones de uso
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/ar/
Repositorio
CONICET Digital (CONICET)
Institución
Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas
OAI Identificador
oai:ri.conicet.gov.ar:11336/175923

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spelling Building from heterogeneity: the decomposition and recomposition of the working class viewed from the “popular economy” in ArgentinaFernandez Alvarez, Maria InesARGENTINAPOLITICSPOPULAR ECONOMYSOCIAL MOVEMENTSTRADE UNIONWORKING CLASShttps://purl.org/becyt/ford/6.5https://purl.org/becyt/ford/6In this statement, I draw on the results of ongoing ethnographical research in Argentina with cooperatives of street vendors that are part of the Confederation of Workers of the Popular Economy (CTEP), an organization formed in 2011. The CTEP defines itself as a trade union whose aim is to represent the heterogeneous universe of wageless workers engaged in a diversity of socio-economic activities. These activities include, for example, waste-pickers, subcontracted textile workers, street vendors, farmers, artisans and car-keepers, and state-driven cooperative workers who perform tasks of maintenance of urban public infrastructure (squares, streets, and sidewalks) self-construction and maintenance of housing and other cooperatives derived from initially self-managed processes. It is a population, where very dissimilar trajectories, experiences, and characteristics prevail. I examine the efforts made by the CTEP to forge a unity from this diversity by using the notion of “popular economy” and how this notion came to be constructed as a political claim category that collectively encompasses heterogeneous work experiences and trajectories. Taking this idea as the starting point, I will discuss the way in which the process of political organization that the CTEP embodies can contribute to anthropological debates about the notion of class in the contemporary capitalism. I contend that this organization develops a process of collective construction that makes this heterogeneity a strength and a subject in its own right, rather than a means to the end of transforming workers in the popular economy to fully waged workers.Fil: Fernandez Alvarez, Maria Ines. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Filosofía y Letras. Instituto de Ciencias Antropológicas; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaSpringer2018-06info:eu-repo/semantics/articleinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersionhttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501info:ar-repo/semantics/articuloapplication/pdfapplication/pdfhttp://hdl.handle.net/11336/175923Fernandez Alvarez, Maria Ines; Building from heterogeneity: the decomposition and recomposition of the working class viewed from the “popular economy” in Argentina; Springer; Dialectical Anthropology; 44; 1; 6-2018; 57-680304-40921573-0786CONICET DigitalCONICETenginfo:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/url/https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10624-018-9509-6#citeasinfo:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1007/s10624-018-9509-6info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccesshttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/ar/reponame:CONICET Digital (CONICET)instname:Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas2025-09-29T09:34:11Zoai:ri.conicet.gov.ar:11336/175923instacron:CONICETInstitucionalhttp://ri.conicet.gov.ar/Organismo científico-tecnológicoNo correspondehttp://ri.conicet.gov.ar/oai/requestdasensio@conicet.gov.ar; lcarlino@conicet.gov.arArgentinaNo correspondeNo correspondeNo correspondeopendoar:34982025-09-29 09:34:11.831CONICET Digital (CONICET) - Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicasfalse
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Building from heterogeneity: the decomposition and recomposition of the working class viewed from the “popular economy” in Argentina
title Building from heterogeneity: the decomposition and recomposition of the working class viewed from the “popular economy” in Argentina
spellingShingle Building from heterogeneity: the decomposition and recomposition of the working class viewed from the “popular economy” in Argentina
Fernandez Alvarez, Maria Ines
ARGENTINA
POLITICS
POPULAR ECONOMY
SOCIAL MOVEMENTS
TRADE UNION
WORKING CLASS
title_short Building from heterogeneity: the decomposition and recomposition of the working class viewed from the “popular economy” in Argentina
title_full Building from heterogeneity: the decomposition and recomposition of the working class viewed from the “popular economy” in Argentina
title_fullStr Building from heterogeneity: the decomposition and recomposition of the working class viewed from the “popular economy” in Argentina
title_full_unstemmed Building from heterogeneity: the decomposition and recomposition of the working class viewed from the “popular economy” in Argentina
title_sort Building from heterogeneity: the decomposition and recomposition of the working class viewed from the “popular economy” in Argentina
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Fernandez Alvarez, Maria Ines
author Fernandez Alvarez, Maria Ines
author_facet Fernandez Alvarez, Maria Ines
author_role author
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv ARGENTINA
POLITICS
POPULAR ECONOMY
SOCIAL MOVEMENTS
TRADE UNION
WORKING CLASS
topic ARGENTINA
POLITICS
POPULAR ECONOMY
SOCIAL MOVEMENTS
TRADE UNION
WORKING CLASS
purl_subject.fl_str_mv https://purl.org/becyt/ford/6.5
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/6
dc.description.none.fl_txt_mv In this statement, I draw on the results of ongoing ethnographical research in Argentina with cooperatives of street vendors that are part of the Confederation of Workers of the Popular Economy (CTEP), an organization formed in 2011. The CTEP defines itself as a trade union whose aim is to represent the heterogeneous universe of wageless workers engaged in a diversity of socio-economic activities. These activities include, for example, waste-pickers, subcontracted textile workers, street vendors, farmers, artisans and car-keepers, and state-driven cooperative workers who perform tasks of maintenance of urban public infrastructure (squares, streets, and sidewalks) self-construction and maintenance of housing and other cooperatives derived from initially self-managed processes. It is a population, where very dissimilar trajectories, experiences, and characteristics prevail. I examine the efforts made by the CTEP to forge a unity from this diversity by using the notion of “popular economy” and how this notion came to be constructed as a political claim category that collectively encompasses heterogeneous work experiences and trajectories. Taking this idea as the starting point, I will discuss the way in which the process of political organization that the CTEP embodies can contribute to anthropological debates about the notion of class in the contemporary capitalism. I contend that this organization develops a process of collective construction that makes this heterogeneity a strength and a subject in its own right, rather than a means to the end of transforming workers in the popular economy to fully waged workers.
Fil: Fernandez Alvarez, Maria Ines. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Filosofía y Letras. Instituto de Ciencias Antropológicas; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina
description In this statement, I draw on the results of ongoing ethnographical research in Argentina with cooperatives of street vendors that are part of the Confederation of Workers of the Popular Economy (CTEP), an organization formed in 2011. The CTEP defines itself as a trade union whose aim is to represent the heterogeneous universe of wageless workers engaged in a diversity of socio-economic activities. These activities include, for example, waste-pickers, subcontracted textile workers, street vendors, farmers, artisans and car-keepers, and state-driven cooperative workers who perform tasks of maintenance of urban public infrastructure (squares, streets, and sidewalks) self-construction and maintenance of housing and other cooperatives derived from initially self-managed processes. It is a population, where very dissimilar trajectories, experiences, and characteristics prevail. I examine the efforts made by the CTEP to forge a unity from this diversity by using the notion of “popular economy” and how this notion came to be constructed as a political claim category that collectively encompasses heterogeneous work experiences and trajectories. Taking this idea as the starting point, I will discuss the way in which the process of political organization that the CTEP embodies can contribute to anthropological debates about the notion of class in the contemporary capitalism. I contend that this organization develops a process of collective construction that makes this heterogeneity a strength and a subject in its own right, rather than a means to the end of transforming workers in the popular economy to fully waged workers.
publishDate 2018
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2018-06
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501
info:ar-repo/semantics/articulo
format article
status_str publishedVersion
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv http://hdl.handle.net/11336/175923
Fernandez Alvarez, Maria Ines; Building from heterogeneity: the decomposition and recomposition of the working class viewed from the “popular economy” in Argentina; Springer; Dialectical Anthropology; 44; 1; 6-2018; 57-68
0304-4092
1573-0786
CONICET Digital
CONICET
url http://hdl.handle.net/11336/175923
identifier_str_mv Fernandez Alvarez, Maria Ines; Building from heterogeneity: the decomposition and recomposition of the working class viewed from the “popular economy” in Argentina; Springer; Dialectical Anthropology; 44; 1; 6-2018; 57-68
0304-4092
1573-0786
CONICET Digital
CONICET
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv eng
language eng
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info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1007/s10624-018-9509-6
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dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv Springer
publisher.none.fl_str_mv Springer
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