The Making of New Borders: Neoliberalism and Protest in Buenos Aires

ALEJANDRO GRIMSON

ANTIPODE (OXFORD. PRINT)

University of Manchester/Willley-Balckwell

Lugar: Manchester; Año: 2008 vol. 40 p. 504 - 512

0066-4812

This essay analyzes certain socio-spatial features of the city of Buenos Aires, specially the socioeconomic degradé taking place between the Río de la Plata and the Riachuelo. After defining the social and symbolic borders traditionally delimiting daily life and identities in the city, I will analyze, on the one hand, how they have been altered by neoliberalism and, on the other, the challenge posed them by “new sociopolitical phenomena” like the "cartoneros"(trash recyclers), neighborhood assemblies and "piqueteros" (road cutters).Neoliberal economic policy is generally characterized by free trade, deregulation, a liberalized capital market, fiscal reform and targeted (not universal) social programs. During the 1990s an unmitigated version of these policies was applied in Argentina, culminating in the 2001-02 economic political and socio-cultural crisis that marked its demise. In our view, neoliberalism also designates the socio-cultural configuration that makes possible—and results from—its politics and economic policy. In spatial terms, neoliberalism has transformed the urban borders imagined and lived by Buenos Aires residents, the same borders that structure their social practices and are symbolically and materially reworked by social protest.