Time is Power: Aging and Control of Public Space in a Traditional Middle Class Neighborhood in Lima
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18800/anthropologica.201602.007Keywords:
Middle classes, neighborhood, local organization, aging, Latin AmericaAbstract
In this article, I study the effect of aging of neighbors on local organizations in San Felipe, a middle-class neighborhood in Lima, Peru. I elaborate on this effect by using the case of the control of public space in the neighborhood. I conducted participant observation during a year. During that year, I observed the dynamics of local organizations’ meetings; I interviewed 46 residents of different characteristics; and I observed a large amount of situations and
controversies among actors in San Felipe’s public space. I find that senior residents are the ones who impose their point of view about the neighborhood’s fortune. This result is surprising considering that senior residents are neither the most numerous group in the neighborhood, neither the one with higher resources. I claim that that happens because senior residents transform time (a scarce resource for young-adult neighbors, though abundant for the senior
neighbors) into organizational power. With that organizational power, senior residents are able to influence on the municipality’s functionaries who not only defend the discourse of senior residents regarding the use of public space, but also transform it according to this discourse.
Downloads
References
Arellano, Rolando y David Burgos (2010). Ciudad de los Reyes, de los Chávez, de los Quispe. Lima: Planeta.
Borja, Jordi (2003). La ciudad conquistada. Buenos Aires: Alianza.
Bourdieu, Pierre (1984) [1979]. Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press.
Burawoy, Michael (1998). The Extended Case Method. Sociological Theory, 16(1), 4-33. https://doi.org/10.1111/0735-2751.00040
Centner, Ryan (2010). Spatializing Distinction in Cities of the Global South: Volatile Terrains of Morality and Citizenship. Political Power and Social Theory, 21, 281-298. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0198-8719(2010)0000021016
Centner, Ryan (2013). Distinguishing the Right Kind of City: Contentious Urban Middle Classes in Argentina, Brazil and Turkey. En Tony Samara, He Shenjing y Gou Chen (eds.), Locating Right to the City in the Global South (pp. 247-263). Londres, Nueva York: Routledge.
Comaroff, John (1982). Dialectical Systems, History and Anthropology: Units of Study and Questions of Theory. Journal of Southern African Studies, 8(2), 143-172. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057078208708040
Cotlear, Daniel (ed.) (2011). Population Aging: Is Latin America Ready? Washington DC: The World Bank.
Da Silva, Graziela y Elisa Reis (2011). Perceptions of Racial Discrimination among Black Professionals in Rio de Janeiro. Latin American Research Review, 46(2), 55-78. https://doi.org/10.1353/lar.2011.0026
Elias, Norbert y John L. Scotson (1994) [1964]. The Established and the Outsiders: An Inquiry into Community Problems. Londres: Sage.
Franco, Rolando, Arturo León y Raúl Atria (eds.) (2007). Estratificación y movilidad social en América Latina: Transformaciones estructurales de un cuarto de siglo. Santiago de Chile: LOM, CEPAL, GTZ.
Franco, Rolando, Martin Hopenhayn y Arturo León (eds.) (2010). Las clases medias en América Latina: retrospectiva y nuevas tendencias. México DF: CEPAL, Siglo XXI.
Graves, Erin (2010). The Structuring of Urban Life in a Mixed-income Housing Community. City & Community, 9(1), 109-131. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.15406040.2009.01305.x
Harvey, David (2006). Political Economy of Public Space. En Setha Low y Neil Smith (eds.), The Politics of Public Space (pp. 35-48). Nueva York, Londres: Routledge.
Hirschman, Albert (1970). Exit, Voice, and Loyalty: responses to decline in firms, organizations, and states. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Joseph, Mark (2008). Early Resident Experiences at a New Mixed-Income Development in Chicago. Journal of Urban Affairs, 30(2), 229-257. https://doi.org/10.1111/ j.1467-9906.2008.00394.x
Lefebvre, Henri (1996 [1967]). The Right to the City. En Henri Lefebvre, Writings on Cities. Malden, Oxford, Carlton: Blackwell.
Logan, John y Harvey Molotch (1987). Urban Fortunes. The Political Economy of Place. Berkeley, Los Ángeles, Londres: University of California Press.
Méndez, María Luisa (2008). Middle-Class Identities in a Neoliberal Age: Tensions between Contested Authenticities. The Sociological Review, 5(2), 220-237. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-954X.2008.00785.x
Pereyra, Omar (2015). Contemporary Middle Class in Latin America: A Study of San Felipe. Lanham: Lexington Books.
Portes, Alejandro y John Walton (1976). Urban Latin America: The Political Condition from Above and Below. Austin, Londres: The University of Texas Press.
Portocarrero, Gonzalo (1998). Introducción. Ajuste de cuentas: las clases medias en el trabajo de Tempo. En Gonzalo Portocarrero (ed.), Las clases medias: entre la pretensión y la incertidumbre (pp. 9-37). Lima: Oxfam, Sur.
Roberts, Bryan (1978). Cities of Peasants: The Political Economy of Urbanization in the Third World. Beverly Hills, Londres: Sage Publications.
Saad, Paulo (2011). Demographic Trends in Latin America and the Caribbean. En Daniel Cotlear (ed.), Population Aging: Is Latin America Ready? (pp. 43-77). Washington DC: The World Bank.
Small, Mario Luis (2004). Villa Victoria: The Transformation of Social Capital in a Boston Barrio. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. https://doi.org/10.7208/ chicago/9780226762937.001.0001
Snow, David y Robert Benford (1992). Master Frames and Cycles of Protest. En Morris, Aldon y Carol McClurg Mueller (eds.), Frontiers in Social Movement Theory (pp. 133-155). New Haven: Yale University Press.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
