Middle-Class Identity in the Context of Crisis: Argentina, 1989-2003

EZEQUIEL ADAMOVSKY

Rio de Janeiro

Congreso; XXVIII International Congress of the Latin American Studies Association (LASA); 2009

Latin American Studies Association

This paper explores changes in the identity of the Argentinean “middle class” as a consequence of the deep economic crisis that the country went through from 1989 to 2003. In that period, several factors –from the phenomenon  of the “nuevos pobres” and the weakening of traditional values, to the dramatic changes in popular culture and in family patterns– cast doubts on the main contents of that identity. The paper analyses how the idea of the “nuevos pobres” was transmitted from academic studies to the general public, and how it affected identities. By comparing surveys of class perception, it shows that in the 1990s more people came to perceive themselves as “nuevos pobres” or even working class.  In turn, the paper shows how this shift also affected general perceptions of  race and class differences, thus weakening the strong mental barriers –typical of Argentinean culture– that separate people who perceive themselves as “middle class” and “European” from those who are stigmatized as “cabecita negra” poor. Finally, by surveying politicians’ speeches, political cartoons, the daily press and statements of the main associations that represent the interests of small business, of the “ahorristas” and of the movement of neighbors’ Assemblies that emerged after the 2001 crisis, the paper analyses the functions and uses of the idea of a “middle class rebellion” or of a “17 de Octubre of the middle class”, which became common in 2001-2003.