Urban Space, Forms of Living, and Intersectionality. Constructions of Urban Inequality in Buenos Aires, Argentina

Abstract

This article explores how various intersections of social markers such as race/ethnicity, gender, and class (re)produce the materialities of urban public space in Latin America. Based on five ethnographic studies conducted over the past two decades, we analyze how different social groups –skateboarding enthusiasts, street vendors, informal recyclers, seamstresses, domestic workers, and women and non-binary gamers– utilize and influence the urban public spaces of Buenos Aires, including virtual environments. The unequal urban experiences of these groups –characterized by distinct modes of resource acquisition, spatial navigation, and moral impositions– highlight the necessity of an intersectional perspective in comprehending the spatial processes that perpetuate inequality.