Political Action and Organization in Spaces of Social Exclusion: A Study of an Polygon in Southeastern Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua

Abstract

This paper studies the forms of organization and political action in seven populations living within a polygon with high levels of social exclusion in Ciudad Juarez, which is a border and industrial city in northern Mexico. These populations have similar characteristics: precarious employment in the export sector, homeownership, overcrowding, low levels of schooling and low income levels. While looking to obtain enough resources to survive, they generate a series of strategies such as collective organization, negotiation with the state, and informal and illegal practices that give them access to basic services and social programs. These practices have historically been referred to by classical political science as depoliticizing or apolitical ones, when in reality they are complex forms of construction of the political as a strategy to survive abandonment on the part of the state. Through the application of qualitative methodology, seven cases are described, proving that there is a world with its own rhythms, languages and defining practices.