Citizenship processes and differential subjectivations in a slum in Buenos Aires

Abstract

This work aims to share a set of reflections based on an empirical study that addresses the processes of citizenship experienced by the inhabitants of a slum located on a railroad land in the City of Buenos Aires. La Carbonilla is a neighborhood produced by self-building from the occupation – begun in the late 1990s and continued deferred over the next two decades- of a group of waste pickers arriving on the white train from the Conurbano Bonaerense to collect metals, cardboard and disused objects. Three dimensions of the construction history of the neighborhood will be studied. First, we will analyze the emergence of communal processes that contributed to the construction of a community of belonging and promoted the maintenance of a socio-spatial order. Secondly, we will reconstruct the emergence of some formal elements that gave account of a process of institutionalization of the neighborhood in front of the Government of the City of Buenos Aires. Thirdly and finally, we will examine the heterogeneous modalities in which different groups of the neighborhood experienced these so-called processes of citizenship. It also explores the link between the initial material configurations of different groups and the possibility of inserting themselves into networks and organizational processes. Finally, the question is raised as to how the State could intervene in dealing with this heterogeneity.