Consuming Responsibilities

ANDRES DAPUEZ

Workshop; Consuming the City; 2021

University of Bern / Swiss School of Latin American Studies

Mostlyan urban phenomenon, new consuming patterns did not only change peoples’mentalities and expectations. Latin American cities transform themselves at thesame time they consume themselves. They attracted rural and little villages’people with promises of new forms of life. Migration to cities for improving formsof consumption has been poorly researched in detail. Exposed to the city life-style,migrants tend to reproduce urban residents consumption patterns. For them, asfor everyone, consuming the city is the only way of being in the city. Such alife-form, at the same time, attracts new migrations from already establishedmigrants’ nets. Are these consumption lead phenomena different from the past?Are Latin American cities altering themselves mainly by consumption relatedprocesses? How wealth redistribution and social investment relate to urbanconsumption in Latin America?