Of Morals and Markets

Social Exchange and Poverty in Contemporary Urban Mexico

Datos Bibliográficos

ID5742472
AutoresMercedes González De La Rocha (autor de correspondencia)
Año2020
Volumen689
Número1
Páginas26-45
Fecha de publicación2020-05-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaThe Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0002-7162 • E-ISSN: 1552-3349
EditorialSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0002716220916700
OpenAlexW3028307329
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas8
Referencias 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