Of Morals and Markets

Social Exchange and Poverty in Contemporary Urban Mexico

Dados Bibliográficos

ID5742472
AutoresMercedes González De La Rocha (autor correspondente)
Ano2020
Volume689
Fascículo1
Páginas26-45
Data de publicação2020-05-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoThe Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0002-7162 • E-ISSN: 1552-3349
EditoraSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0002716220916700
OpenAlexW3028307329
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas8
Referências citadas21

Based on longitudinal ethnographic research in Guadalajara, Mexico, from the 1980s to present, I argue that there has been a significant change in the availability of mutual help or support networks for the economically disadvantaged. As time and income have become increasingly scarce, people who used to find support in reciprocal social relationships now find that support-givers are in no position to provide assistance for free. Now, people experiencing scarcity find that they must pay for help formerly available through social relations. In other words, care within the family, in contexts of urban poverty, is becoming a commodity. A paradox arises for those who have fewer resources: they are excluded by the market economy, and by resorting to mercantilist values to survive, they are violating moral principles and norms that exclude them even more from social exchange

Commodity · Development economics · Disadvantaged · Economic growth · Economics · Market economy · Position (finance) · Poverty · Scarcity · Social policy · Sociology · Employment and Welfare Studies · Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics · Social Policy and Reform Studies