“Hasta la próxima crisis”. Memorias catastróficas, imágenes de futuro y la identidad de clase media en la Argentina

VISACOVSKY, SERGIO EDUARDO

Rio de Janeiro

Congreso; 2009 Meeting of the Latin American Studies Association; 2009

Latin American Studies Association

How do people ascribed as “middle class” remember economic and political 2001-2002 Argentine crisis? This is the focus of this paper, which is based on ethnographic-multisited fieldwork, ethnohistorical analysis of written sources and life-stories carried out in 2004-2006. The paper shows that the middle class experienced the last crisis as a part of a cycle of ups and downs: prosperous times are followed by less-prosperous periods. Irremediably, this leads to an absence of faith in the future, and to hope in the present. There is an idea of individual salvation which must be carried out today, immediately, because the future can be dreadful. Besides better local economic conditions after crisis, these ideas and narratives recreated middle class identity during and after crisis.