Environmental care and social agency: migrant women experiences in Buenos Aires

Abstract

Introduction

This article is the result of a research carried out in the conglomerate of impoverished settlements in the Reconquista River basin, in the Buenos Aires district of San Martín, Argentina. We work with a group of both foreign and domestic rural migrant women, who are exposed to vulnerable environmental conditions given its proximity to the river and the largest open-air dump in the region.

Objectives

Identify and analyze the dimensions that, for migrant women located in the Reconquista Area, represent the environmental variable. 

Method

The qualitative method was used for this purpose with an ethnographic focus, employing the techniques of participant observation and in-depth interviews, from the perspective of participatory action research.

Results

The care taking functions appeared as backbone of this research. Although these overload women of this study, this dimension allows them to broaden their margins of neighborhood political participation, without breaking with the patriarchal frameworks to which caregiving roles subject them socially.

Conclusions

The category "environmental care" allows us to think of non-disruptive ways in which actors can subtly run their margins of action.