Abstracts
Nº 22
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Abstracts |
Nº 22
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Incidence of Environmental Conditions on the Health of Junkmen in the Municipal Junkyard in the City of Paraná (Argentina) |
María Griselda Anzola et al. |
| Key-Words: sociology - health - environmental conditions - junkmen's activities - garbage |
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Working
conditions for the junkmen's community in the City of Paraná were
analyzed from the environmental point of view, as well as their influence
over the latter. It is possible to state that junkmen work in an environment
aggressive due to the load of pollutants present in water, air and soil.
They also work in extremely precarious conditions due to inadequate body
positions, since they remain several hours out in the open not using any
protective devices, etc. Paradoxically, social representations regarding
their own health and ideas on the risks to which they are exposed are
contradictory and dichotomial in this community, but functional to a practical
mind addressed to face the uncertainty proper to their living and working
conditions. Thus, muscular pain, sore eyes, circulatory and digestive
problems and sleeping disorders are denied or not perceived as health
conditions. They do recognize though, a low life expectancy and that reaching
an old age is difficult for them due to the "permanent suffering"
to which they are exposed. As a conclusion, the need is expressed for
responsible governmental organizations to generate immediate proposals
for cleaning up the area with an appropriate treatment and a final disposal
of waste, also incorporating the current junkmen in them. Besides, that
the institutions in the area should design policies suitable for the sector
with the knowledge already acquired from their health-disease profile.
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Those "Up There" and Those "Down There". A Problem of Disctrict Cultural Identity in the City of Paraná (Entre Ríos) |
Enrique Timó; Raquel Basso |
| Key words: Social anthropology - social identity - culture - imagery - district |
| The research project had as universe the urban setting in Paraná, more specifically the Anacleto Medina Sur district, which was considered as a social construction, since different processes were carried out in it for production and reproduction of social relationships, control and goods appropriation, culture transmission and reproduction, internalization of both external social conditions and resistance and fight environment. In the district area researched, it is possible to verify that being "up there" or "down there" along the slope that finishes near the Paraná River ponds outlines an evident reproduction of the socioeconomic asymmetry. These urban features left a mark in the relationship between spatial and social stratification thus allowing to construct a social imagery in which the actors make up their identities by differentiating them. The district actors are perceived and differentiated by a spatial referent. However, given the socioeconomic differences of those living in each area of the district, it was possible to notice that the unevenness in the land, a fact that in itself lacks sense, became a significant element that referred to the social condition and position of the actors, making a sign of social distance and separation. Thus, the "up there" and "down there" categories become systematizing and inclusive nuclei that hide the ordering principles in social practices and differences. |
Poverty: Living Conditions in the City of Paraná (Argentina) |
Graciela Mingo de Bevilacqua et al |
| Key words: Sociology - Structural urban poverty.- Living strategies - Impoverishing population |
| The process
of poverty is, needless to say, never the same between different social
groups nor identical among the people within them. There are differences
in relation to their educational level and sex, the intrinsic cultural style
in their own social group. Also, distinctions appear according to the social
and environmental context in which these people live. Social practices outline
unique living strategies within the scope of poverty and they are determined
by each groups' culture and history. The intensity and heterogeneity of
urban poverty are found in unlike spaces and result in unsatisfied basic
needs (U.B.N.). In this project we approached its cartographic representation.
The economic and political events have molded new faces of inequality and
exclusion. In such dichotomy, some people have access to changes in society
while others are left behind, dissociated or isolated from that local space.
These phenomena have given birth to two cities: an "official or visible
city" and a "city of the poor". Our qualitative study has
made it possible to describe communal living strategies as well as find
differentiating categories which show the lifestyles of two groups: the
structural poor and the impoverishing population. Hence, our work aims at
describing the living conditions of urban poverty as part of a challenge
that remains unanswered and that must be faced with adequate public policies
in search of social equity. |
A study
on the conditions of the family - public institutions link.
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Susana Cazzaniga et al. |
| Key Words: Family - Public Institutions - Dispositive - Dependency |
| Public institutions and families related to them due to their needs for survival establish a certain type of relationship that has several forms of influence upon the social-problem solving, giving place to events of clientelism, dependency and answers that are partial or even result in disorganization of the family reality. The research undertaken was partly aimed to clear up that link and determine the different components of the "game". We inicially assumed that such sort of link originates a strong dependency upon the institutions on the more excluded sectors of society, breeding deep contradictions resulting obstacules for the overcoming of family and social conflicts. Attempting to theoretically support the modality shown by the particular case of the public institution selected for the field work, we concluded that the link set with the families demanding from it may be characterized as a complex weave of relationships producing on the subjects a trend to dependency from asistance and protection. Such effects may be viewed as a functional overdeterminant -i.e., undesirable effects- created by the institutional dispositive, in terms of Foucault. |
Study on Comparative Profitability in the Industrial Productive Integrated Process of Beef in Entre Ríos |
Gabriel Villanova et al |
| Key words: Economy - production chain - beef - integration - profit margin |
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The productive process of beef from its start to the final product available to consumers comprehends several stages which make up links in a productive chain. Such chain can present a greater or lesser degree of complexity according to the amount of economic agents intervening. The appropriation of the "profit margin" -difference between price to consumers and price to the primary producer- is conditioned by some imperfections in the markets and by the power of operators in each level of the chain, thus generating in many cases unequal situations for those who contribute the greatest effort in primary production. They must resign themselves to obtain meager profitability rates. This research focused on that situation and analyzed comparative profitability in the different stages of production and commercialization processes of beef in the Province of Entre Ríos (Argentina). Besides, both the existence of integrated production processes and the possible economic benefits for those who perform them have been studied going as far as the sale of the meat processing industry. Regarding consumption, a survey was carried out in the City of Paraná to check the relative significance of supermarkets in selling beef to the general public, and their level of vertical integration. |
The "Cyclone" Ii Anacleto Medina Sur (Constructing a Identity i Urban Poverty Areas) |
Patricia C. Fasano |
| Key words: Urban poverty - identity - signification |
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"Anacleto Medina Sur" is a poor disctrict in the City of Paraná. There, we performed a field work with the aim of recording empyrical data to analyze the production of social signification in district imagery in urban poverty. In this article we developed the analysis of the ways in which, by the participation in a district Committee, the neighbors from Anacleto Medina Sur displayed -when the field work was carried out- practices and strategies addressed to modify some elements that were the base for the building of their social identity. Both the Committee and the district are, regarding this topic, emblematic of a kind of meaning production that could be traced back to other district imageries from urban poverty in our country, according to our belief. |