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Abstract
This paper demonstrates how social and political conflict is inscribed in urban space by focusing on the neoliberal political–economic collapse of Argentina, which was a conflict-ridden process with ordinary people protesting against institutions responsible for the neoliberalization of the economy. These protests affected the architecture of banking and government institutions, especially in Buenos Aires, which is the political and financial center of Argentina. Facing popular unrest and continuous political mobilizations, these institutions decided to physically fortify themselves and in the process displayed their vulnerability and illegitimacy. The fact that spatial fortification became a permanent feature of state institutions but only a temporary feature of international banks, raises questions about the way that neoliberalism operates and the way that blame for neoliberal failures is allocated. It also provides hints about the unsatisfactory political–economic outcome that emerged after the collapse, despite the fact that orthodox neoliberalism was at least rhetorically abandoned.
Acknowledgements
Special thanks go to César Edgardo Soto Cepeda, Gabriela Garreffa, Jorge Manuel Reboredo, Noemí Nicastro Oliveira, Magali Camblong, Florencia Siri, Pablo Olender, Judith Conde and Eleonora Amisano for their valuable assistance.
Notes
The House of Government (Casa de Gobierno) is the seat of the executive branch of the government of Argentina. This is where the office of the president is located. The House of Government is also called Casa Rosada (Pink House) and presidential palace (even though the president does not reside there). In order to avoid confusion, in this paper only the term House of Government is utilized.
To be sure, there have been years when Argentina appeared to have distanced itself from the economic crisis, at least officially. However, those years represent notable exceptions with the 1991–97 period viewed as the longest one, though even this requires qualification; there was a run on the peso in 1992 that the government was able to manage, bank failures and an erosion of the foreign reserves in 1995 because of the Mexican Tequila effect, and bouts of high unemployment and poverty rates for much of the period.
The economy began to grow again in 2002. However, the financial system was not fully functional, the economy had contracted too much because of the collapse and there were too many uncertainties. The economic recovery was not credible before 2003.
The spatial terminology regarding the Buenos Aires area is as follows. Buenos Aires or City of Buenos Aires refers to the Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, which is a political subdivision that includes only the city. Greater Buenos Aires refers to Gran Buenos Aires, which includes a number of political subdivisions located in the Province of Buenos Aires (Provincia de Buenos Aires) and surround the City of Buenos Aires. Metropolitan Buenos Aires includes both the City of Buenos Aires and Greater Buenos Aires, areas that are administratively different, but nonetheless are socially and economically connected (though not in a straightforward and easy manner). The City of Buenos Aires contains a significant number of middle- and upper-class people with northern neighborhoods being more affluent and southern neighborhoods being more low income. Greater Buenos Aires varies widely, though the great majority of its population is working class.
This paper is to a great extent based on ethnographic research. Influenced by the way that cultural anthropologists, human geographers, social historians and urban sociologists have been conducting research, I began to design and implement ethnographic and archival projects in New York City neighborhoods in the mid-1990s. My methodology included spatial analysis accompanied by the reading and making of maps; interviews, conversations and observations recorded in notebooks; the sequential photography of neighborhoods and the subsequent cataloging and studying of these photographs; and the reading of primary and secondary writings about these neighborhoods in libraries and archives. I decided to do the same in Buenos Aires after the 2001 overthrow of President De la Rúa. My goal was to study the spatial effects of the economic crisis. The findings of this paper are based on first-hand observations of protest actions; the overhearing of conversations among demonstration participants before and after the contentious events; the photography of institutions that were the objects of contention; and short snowball interviews. In the years that followed 2002, I continued to conduct short interviews in order to fill gaps. In 2006, I published an article on cartoneros, which was derived from research conducted during the same period. In designing this present paper, the selection of photographs and the use of captions for them, has been the most difficult part. Photographs seldom speak for themselves and they usually hide as much as they reveal. However, after presenting these photographs in talks in Argentina and in the USA and receiving feedback, I decided that they also represent an important part of visual history that may be suffering from my interpretations (both visual and verbal), but can nonetheless help us understand the relationship of political–economic power and spatial fortification.
Cacerolazos are usually demonstrations in which people bang pots, pans and other utensils. However, during 2001–2002 in Argentina, the term began to include other types of protest actions with demonstrators using drums, wood, metal, soda cans, car keys and other devices to make a noise.
The only Argentine bank that was regularly attacked was the sizable and privately held Banco Galicia.
In 1991 the price of the US dollar was fixed to 10,000 Argentine australs. In 1992, the austral was replaced by the peso with 10,000 australs becoming one peso.
Clientelism in Argentina has a long and complicated history that is outside the scope of this paper.
This practice was also dishonest with a high percentage of the funds going to corrupt contractors, government officials and political organizations.
The insistence of the federal government to keep the police under its control has frequently generated friction between the government of Buenos Aires and the federal government, and is the topic of unresolved constitutional questions. Besides the Code of Urban Coexistence, there are federal penal and other laws that apply in the Republic that the police enforce.