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The Publicity and the Grassroots: Social Movements and Independent Media in

Villa 31 y 31 bis, Buenos Aires

| Part II Undergraduate Dissertation | April 1, 2016

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Statement

This dissertation is my own unaided work. Its length is no fewer than 8000 and no greater than 10000

words. I received supervision from Professor Sarah Radcliffe (30 minutes, January 2015), Dr Jessica

Hope (40 minutes, December 2015 and a further 40 minutes March 2016) and Dr Graham Denyer-

Willis (30 minutes, March 2016).

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Acknowledgements

Thanks are owed to all those who gave up their time to speak with me in September and to those

who lost much of theirs listening afterwards. Special thanks go to Carla for never doubting me, or at

least hiding it superbly.

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Abstract

The growth of social justice movements around the world has captured many an imagination. In 2014

the Corriente Villera Independiente (CVI), a social movement made up of residents from Buenos Aires’

informal housing districts (the villas) erected a tent at the Obelisk monument. A rotating hunger strike

in protest at the government’s reluctance to provide basic infrastructure in the villas ensued.

Combining observations of CVI meetings and interviews with movement and villa members with an

analysis of the numerous media the group employs, I aim to understand the role of social and

independent media in the group’s unique repertoire.

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Preface

While the focus on social movements in Buenos Aires remains, certain changes occurred from the

original research concept. Namely, my proposed focus on the CVI shifted to a wider range of

organisations. This was partly the result of additional groups being more responsive to my

correspondence but also because it became clear that the CVI were not the most significant

contributor to the independent media sector. The planned investigation of social and independent

media was reduced to independent media only, due to the scope of an undergraduate dissertation

and there being less literature on independent as opposed to social media.

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Contents

Cover ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….1

Statement ………………………………………………………………………………………………………..2

Acknowledgements ………………………………………………………………………………………….3

Abstract ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………4

Preface ……………………………………………………………………………………..……………………..5

Contents …………………………………………………………………………………………………………..6

Site Introduction ………………………………………………………………………………………………7

Introduction …………………………………………………………………………………………………....9

Literature Review …………………………………………………………………………………………..11

Methodology ………………………………………………………………………………………………….15

Findings ………………………………………………………………………………………………………….18

Chapter 1 ………………………………………………………………………………………….18

Chapter 2 ………………….………………………………………………………………………23

Chapter 3 ………………………………………………………………………………………….28

Analysis ………………………………………………………………………………………………………….32

Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………………………………………..36

Appendix A …………………………………………………………………………………………………….37

Appendix B …………………………………………………………………………………………………….38

Appendix C …………………………………………………………………………………………………….39

Bibliography …………………………………………………………………………………………………..40

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Site Introduction

Central Buenos Aires is governed at three levels of administration; national, provincial and municipal.

The Federal government of Argentina exercises key functions over the whole country. Provincial

governments, of which there are twenty-three, carry out remaining functions across the country.

Contained within the Buenos Aires Province is Greater Buenos Aires (Conurbano Bonarense),

represented in Figure 1, a metropolitan area with a population of close to 13 million people (van

Gelder, Cravino and Ostuni, 2015). Geographically within both but separate is the Autonomous City of

Buenos Aires (Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), outlined in blue in Figure 1 with a population of 2.8

million (INDEC, 2010). It is often, and in the case of this dissertation, referred to as Capital Federal.

Figure 1: Map of Greater Buenos Aires. Edited. Source: Indec, 2003.

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Situated next to the neighbourhoods of Retiro and San Martin, areas of prime real estate within Capital

Federal, is Villa 31 y 31 bis, home to approximately 30,000 residents (Benwell et al, 2013). While Villa

31 bis is thought of as the more recently built portion of the villa, delineated from the longer-

established Villa 31 by a flyover motorway, most residents suggest it is an arbitrary division. I therefore

refer to both areas as Villa 31. Figure 2 shows the location of Villa 31, marked in purple, within Capital

Federal. The population of Villa 31 increased 116% between 2001 and 2009. Over half its residents are

foreign born, compared to an 11% city average (DGEyC, 2009; Bastia, 2014).

Figure 2: Villa 31 y 31 bis (marked in purple) in Capital Federal. Edited. Source: Indec (2003).

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Introduction

This dissertation focuses on the ways in which residents of one of Buenos Aires’ villas (informal

settlements) create and contest their experiences of urbanization. Concentrating on the role of

independent media, many of which villa residents produce or engage with, the central aim of my

research was;

To investigate how residents of Villa 31 navigate the politics of urbanization

The following research questions steered the investigation;

What are the contemporary politics of urbanization in Buenos Aires?

How are these politics represented by those in the villas?

What is the relationship between the villa and the formal state?

Latin America is the most urbanized region of the world: 80% of its population live in urban areas

(ONU-Habitat, 2012, p82). At the same time, 25% (124 million) live below the poverty line (ONU-

Habitat, 2012, p39) and Brazilian, Argentine and Colombian cities are beaten only by those in South

Africa to the unenviable position of ‘world’s least equal’. It is clear that urbanization is uneven

between, as well as within, cities (UN-Habitat, 2008).

In exploring the politics of urbanization in one Buenos Aires villa, the dissertation highlights the role

of independent media, contributing empirically to an understudied portion of social movement

studies. This is particularly relevant in Argentina, where;

“the media have overshadowed the role of political organizations that historically occupied the

centre of public life in Argentina […] the media have become the central political stage […] as

both arena and actor” (Waisbord, 2004: 1078).

Villa residents engage with independent media as part of a wider repertoire of approaches aimed at

tackling urbanization. Since 2009, independent media have made up a third of all audio-visual media

produced in Argentina, the result of Argentina’s Audio-visual Communication Services Law (Ley de

Servicios de Comunicación Audiovisual). Passed by Congress in October 2009 and spearheaded by then

President Cristina Fernandez-Kirchner, the national law restricted the number of television, cable and

radio licences that individual companies could own at any one time. Categorising providers as either

state-run, private for profit or private not for profit, a third of the spectrum was reserved for each. For

the first time, neither the state-run media nor the regulatory authority was controlled by the

administration in power (Becerra and Mastrini, 2014). Alongside legislated independent media, a

powerful independent graphic media sector has emerged. According to the largest organisation of

these magazines and newspapers, around 1.5 million people read the sectors’ output each month.

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Argentine media has been seen as having a critical role in perpetuating simplistic representations of

villas (informal settlements) (Auyero, 2002; Silva, 2008). This dissertation aims to explore the role of

independent media within the wider Argentine media context and its role in villa residents’

mobilisations for urbanization. A central tenet of the dissertation is that the politics of urbanization in

Buenos Aires and villa residents’ involvement with them should not be considered a closed system. I

seek to move beyond the dichotomy of state versus social movement that is often reproduced in

academic literature, while still considering interactions that emerge.

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Literature Review

This dissertation draws on literature from two separate but complementary canons: social movement

studies and critical theory. Social movement studies provide a rich source of theory on what

constitutes a social movement, why collective action occurs and how we might understand it, as

geographers. The field is well-established in the Latin American context in both Spanish and English

literature. Critical theory proved particularly valuable in my analysis of independent media. These

media are largely neglected within a social movement literature that typically focuses on social media.

Inherently normative and political, critical theory blurs the boundaries between subjective and

objective, structure and agency, thus balancing the assumptions that sometimes recur in social

movement studies. By integrating the conventional approach to social movements with a critical

theory that seems to stay true to the radical politics of the groups I investigated and to the research’s

media focus, it is my hope that my analysis is both rigorous and appropriate.

Social movements

The literary canon of social movement studies could be extended to 1848, to the first documented

use of ‘social movement’ in von Stein’s study of French socialism (von Stein, 1848; Tilly, 2004). The

Chicago School of Sociology began theorising social movements in the 1920s but it was in the 1960s

that the field became a significant area of sociology (Oliver et al, 2003). Geographers only began to

engage with social movements in the early 1970s, an era of dynamic post-materialist activism

(Aslanidis, 2015). The geographic variation and diffusion patterns of protest and strike activity held

the focus of these early geographical works (Adams, 1973; Sharp, 1973). The ‘cultural turn’ in social

science, beginning in the mid-1970s, led to an exploration of ‘the social’ and ‘the spatial’ together

within the dogma that space is a vital component in the formation of power relations and

contestations and not merely a physical location (Miller, 2001). Within Geography, Political Economy

and Marxist approaches to social movements (Massey, 1984; Markusen, 1989) considered large

structural factors; wage disparities over space, state systems and national-level organising. Within

Sociology, resource mobilization and political process theories understood social movements as

contingent on the presence of sufficient resources and political opportunity, respectively. Under such

assumptions however, there remained notable absences in the study of culture within movements in

both Sociology and Geography at this time (McAdam, 1982; Tarrow, 1996; Aslandis, 2015).

Into the 1990s, geographers and sociologists began looking at the symbolic coding and identity-

producing potential of space in terms of ethnicity (Marston, 1988), gender (Rose, 1993) and

intersections of both with class (Ruddick, 1996). Solidarity was understood to be what social

movements were built from and the spaces where identities resonated were their sites of action

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(Miller, 2001). Charles Tilly looked at repertoires of action, the methods used by groups to convey

discontent, thus complicating the previous assumption that groups impulsively mobilised on shared

grievances (Tilly, 1995; Fernandez-Kelly and Shefner, 2006). Building on this, framing theory

attempted to fill the void which political process and resource theories had left, shifting the focus onto

understanding movements’ creation and existence (Gamson and Meyer, 1996; Benford and Snow,

2000). A distinctly constructionist approach, framing theory looks at how repertoires reflect people’s

perceptions of the conditions on which they mobilise. This brings in normative perceptions and

narratives, such as that which scripts poor people as flawed, which movements often mobilise against

or upon (Lawson et al, 2015). Thus, a study of social movements becomes embedded within a study

of society (Gamson, 1992; Leeuwen et al, 2015).

Manuel Castells’ work remains the most influential within studies of social movements. His 1983 The

City and the Grassroots defined urban social movements (USMs) as; “urban-orientated mobilizations

that influence structural social change and transform the urban meanings” (Castells, 1983: 305).

Arguing that the city has three main conflicts; production, experience and power, along which the

opposing divisions of society manifest, he saw that USMs developed from these (Rutland, 2012;

Castells, 1983). Looking at historic social movements ranging from the 1915 Glasgow Rent Strike to

15th century Castilian Revolts, Castells theorised on how contemporary USMs operated within the

“living systems” of cities (Castells, 1983:1). For him, USMs developed around three major themes;

Demand for collective consumption

Shared defence of a cultural identity (associated to a place)

Political mobilization in relation to the state/local government.

Seeing social movements as “symptoms of resistance” rather than “agents of structural social change”

(ibid.:329), Castells’ constructionist approach to the city does not extend into his definition of USMs,

which remains relatively static. Magrit Mayer (2006) sees Castells’ work as reflective of the 1960s and

70s atmosphere in which it was written, and therefore dated.

Although less prevalent within the framing literature, there is a tendency in Castells and others’ work

to view social movements solely in relation to how they engage in a “struggle for state power” (Petras

and Veltmeyer, 2005: 3). However, so-called ‘new social movements’ of the 1960s and 70s mobilised

beyond class lines, often in terms of human rights instead, politicizing the institutions of civil society

that were not contained within representative-bureaucratic political institutions (political parties,

labour unions) of the state (Offe, 1985; Oliver et al, 2003).

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Recent nuances within the social movement canon have sought to update Castells’ work and expand

the literature beyond its focus on the dichotomy of state and social movement. At the less radical end

of this strand, the state is complicated but remains the focus, albeit split into liberal, frustrated or

welfare states (Centeno and Portes, 2006) or ‘states of exception’: places without law (Diken, 2003).

More radically, scale has been brought into question. Tanja Bastia (2014) explored how mediators

between municipal and informal settlement scales in Buenos Aires proved the most influential in

determining perceptions of legitimacy for various villa residents. The retraction of the ‘welfare state’

and the expansion of the private sphere in its place has led feminist scholars to observe the

importance of the household as a unit and the domestic realm as a space of mobilisation, in the

Argentinian soup kitchens that sprang up during the 2001 crisis for example (Birss, 2005; Garcia and

Oliveira, 1994). More radically still, James C. Scott criticised social science for its narrow focus on

official relationships between the powerful and the weak. He claimed that by only studying

movements’ visible actions within formal structures, we are unable to understand the ‘hidden

transcripts’ of resistance that produce movements (Scott, 1990).

Far more nuanced than mass psychopathology and structural theories, new scholarship has sought to

catch up with new social movements, understanding the wider structures of mobilisation, rather than

simply how groups mobilise. However, collective consumption remains on movement agendas the

world over as public infrastructure and services are cut back under regimes of neoliberal governance

and to deem Castells’ work as outdated might be to be mistaken.

Media

The 21st century saw geographers and sociologists attempt to understand movements that were

increasingly fluid (in comparison to labour unions for instance) and engaged in multi-level networks

across new spatial scales, seen to be the result of globalising communications. Thought to hold

unprecedented amounts of democratic potential given its decentralised nature, the Internet was

theorised as a liberation technology and a new counter-public sphere for movements (Fraser, 1990;

Castells, 1996/2001; Diamond, 2010). High impact events of the last ten years such as Wikileaks, the

Arab Spring and the Occupy Movement, have led to study of social networking sites in particular within

and beyond social movement studies. This body of work has explored movements that vary from large

anti-globalization movements to local agricultural collectives (Gerbaudo, 2012; van de Donk et al,

2004; Bastos et al, 2014). While social media has no doubt impacted significantly on movements in

both the global North and South and at multiple scales, there has been little scholarly attention as to

the contemporary role of independent media (Uzelman, 2001).

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Independent media (print or digital) is that which is not directed by corporate or government interests

(Kasoma, 1995). Despite similarities, it is distinct from alternative media, which separates itself

entirely from mass media in terms of production, but also content, being always counter-hegemonic

and radical (although this does not necessarily mean radically left-wing). The study of alternative and

independent media is not new. Critical media studies were greatly developed by the Frankfurt School

under Max Horkheimer, Theodor Adorno and Hebert Marcuse. Horkheimer and his colleagues

founded critical theory, a façade for the Marxist theory that had seen them exiled from Germany

under the Nazis (Wiggershaus, 1994). Concerned by the effects of mass media, the Frankfurt School,

and Marcuse especially, saw that one of the tasks of a critical theory of society was the critique of

information, media and communication technologies given their important role in contemporary

capitalist systems. By focusing on media in the context of domination, oppression and power, the

School produced some incredibly nuanced and political literature that continues to influence media

studies today. Critical theory deliberately moves beyond a descriptive account of the social forces of

domination and aims for, through an exposing of obstacles to, social change and a free society (Held,

1980; Rush, 2004). Similarly, critical media studies “delineate limits to how existing media function […]

expanding the potential for what media could be” (Wark, 2016: 1).

Critical media theorists today continue to see the “role of radical media […] as trying to disrupt the

silence to counter the lies, to provide the truth”, an explicitly political doctrine (Downing, 2001: 16;

Sandoval, 2014). Independent media actors are understood as aiming to expand access to media

production to a broader public, abolishing the relationship between producer and consumer in the

process (Toffler, 1980; Giddens, 1984). An output of the School that is particularly relevant to this

dissertation is that of Hebert Marcuse’s 1965 concept of ‘repressive tolerance’. He considered

tolerance to be repressive when the volume of ideas available for consumption meant critical ideas

were tolerated “but subsumed under the ruling ideas” (Marcuse; 1965: 96). Marcuse also saw that

independent media could make use of capitalist systems, “working against the established institutions

while working in them” (Marcuse, 1972: 55; Sandoval, 2014). That critical ideas can take on elements

of the public language and that radical ideas can exist within the mainstream are nuances that greatly

benefit a study of Argentina’s ‘independent’ media.

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Methodology

Collection

Primary data was collected exclusively in Buenos Aires during September 2015. I conducted eleven in-

depth interviews, each lasting typically sixty minutes, with between one and six participants. In

addition, I attended a radio workshop with residents of Villa Soldati, sitting in on a production meeting

and taking part in their broadcast. I joined feminist activists in Villa 31 for their weekly mate (tea)

meeting. During interviews, a selection of open and closed questions were used to initiate dialogue

and create an environment I hoped would allow interviewees to steer conversation as they wished.

Semi-structured interviews were chosen in order to obtain detailed accounts from a variety of

perspectives (Valentine, 2005). Preserving these perspectives was critical due to the political and

personal nature of what was being discussed but also because these perspectives were themselves

the central component of my investigation. While questions were open-ended and flexible, I ensured

that set themes arose in every interview, details of which can be found in the interview schedule that

forms Appendix B (Bell, 2000). New themes introduced by interviewees were often incorporated into

later interviews, where verbal consent to do so was given. Most interviews were recorded and

transcribed in full. However, a few interviewees asked for there be no recording device in the room

due to absolute anonymity being imperative to them. In these cases, myself and a scribe (a local

translator) would make detailed notes during interviews and then reconstruct a script within twenty-

four hours of the interview. A full summary of interviews forms Appendix A.

Seeking to represent the three relevant (but not mutually exclusive) groups identified, namely villa

residents, media employees and social activists, I used theoretical sampling to secure insights from

each (Ritchie, Lewis and Elam, 2003). By referring to online newspaper articles from publications that

ranged from international to local villa-based publications, a list of relevant organisations and

individuals was formed. Recruitment began through email, which led to interviews with editors of the

two largest English-language newspapers in Argentina. However, more than half my interviews were

secured once I was in the field, where a local SIM card and the messaging app Whatsapp proved

helpful. New contacts’ details were often provided by existing interviewees in a ‘snowballing’ effect.

These proved vital in networking with villa residents for whom individual email or physical addresses

were unavailable online. Through Julio, editor of the newspaper Mundo Villa (Villa World), I was able

to secure several contacts, including Isabella from the feminist organisation Mala Junta and Tomas,

who ran the radio workshop. Both the interviews and the actual method of snowballing itself proved

invaluable, the latter a phenomenon that has been noted in Chaim Noy’s work (Noy, 2008). By

enabling me to trace social networks and relationships I was engaging with, the process of snowballing

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shone a light on the dynamics of power relations and connections that I would have otherwise missed

had I been the sole agent in choosing who was interviewed.

I collected secondary data in the form of publications from each of the independent media groups I

spoke to, in order to get a greater sense of the voice of each publication, the topics on which they

reported and whether there had been any change in either over time. Often I was given copies in

interviews but when this was not the case, I would buy the most recent publication from a street

vendor or failing that, look for an online version.

Analysis

The method provided by Richard Hycner was used to analyse the interview transcripts (Hycner, 1985).

All ‘units of general meaning’ (clauses) were identified and bracketed. My research questions were

then ‘asked’ to each unit and any that illuminated the question were noted. The collected ‘units of

relevant meaning’ were then clustered into themes based on the essence of each unit. In turn,

analysing this group of clusters gave me a broad overview and the themes on which the discussion of

the dissertation hangs. With secondary data, content analysis was carried out on the most recent

edition of each publication. Two articles from each were analysed in depth, with notes on imagery and

content made. Content specific analysis revealed that emotional imagery was employed in both the

graphic publications as well as within the newspaper Mundo Villa.

Limitations

Although I sought to represent villa residents’ perspectives on urbanization and the role of various

media, this aim proved problematic. I was undoubtedly limited by the fact I had four weeks in the field

and was previously unfamiliar with Buenos Aires. My focus on Villa 31 was the result of this being the

villa I was welcomed to enter by residents. While a valid motivation, this has biased my data towards

a villa that is long-established, well-connected and perhaps an anomaly among other Argentine villas,

especially those outside of Buenos Aires, potentially. Despite having kept up to date with villa and city

news through a range of outlets before, and up to, my arrival, much of my knowledge about the

contemporary urbanization issues and social and political structures operating within the villa

emerged during the fieldwork, meaning that later interviews were possibly more fruitful than earlier

ones. Villa residents were harder to get hold of than newspaper editors for example, which meant

that my data set was skewed further away from representing the views of villa residents than I would

have liked. This enriched my data in other ways but took my research in a different direction to the

one I had planned it to go, and therefore been most prepared for.

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I had intended to carry out an auto-photography project with children in Villa 31, similar to that carried

out in Auyero and de Lara’s (2012) piece on violence in villas, an idea I had mooted and had approved

at the feminist tea meeting. A copy of the poster I put up at the plaza can be found in Appendix C.

However, the day before the event, a flood had occurred in Villa 31 and so I helped with the clean-up

effort, deciding it would be inappropriate to ask whether the event could go ahead. Regretfully there

was not time to rearrange this before I left the field. Despite multiple emails to various people within

SECHI, the government office for development and urbanization, I did not hear back. An ‘official’

perspective would have been useful but materials from SECHI’s website and an interview with non-

partisan group ACIJ, who follow what SECHI do closely, supplemented this to some degree.

In terms of analysis, my positionality is likely to have influenced the results most pertinently in the

themes I drew from the data, where my subjectivity had most power. While aimed to counteract this

as much as possibly by following Richard Hycner’s (1985) guidelines, my identity is inherently

embedded in the data because interviewees were in all cases speaking to, or in front on me, an

outsider, and thus it is already caught up with the primary data itself. My intention in referring to

groups’ publications and secondary material was that a range of voices outside those heard in my

presence could be gauged.

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Chapter One: What are the contemporary politics of urbanization in Buenos Aires?

Urbanization n., the process of becoming urban

(Gregory et al, 2000. The Dictionary of Human Geography)

Urbanization n., “It is the most horrible problem. The biggest problem”

(Julio Vallejos, Mundo Villa editor)

For the residents of Villa 31, urbanization is a matter of life and death. As an editor of La Garganta

Poderosa (‘The Mighty Throat’), an anonymously-run independent magazine, put it;

“We are tired of coffins covered by flowers…toys”

“In our utopia urbanization does not kill any of our children”.

Deaths are often the result of poor-quality social housing and infrastructure, constructed by the

municipal government. As a representative of the non-partisan Civil Association for Equality and

Justice (ACIJ) told me;

“A boy fell into a septic tank that was only there [in Villa 21] because of inadequate

government urbanization”

“In Soldati [a villa in the south-west of the city] a boy fell down a stairwell in the government

housing because the railing gave way”.

As the second definition I began this chapter with demonstrates, urbanization was perceived by villa

residents as the greatest problem they faced. It constituted the most pressing issue that needed to be

addressed;

“Urbanization in the villas is the main goal” (Alexis1, La Garganta Poderosa)

“The villas need an injection of structure” (Julio, Mundo Villa).

In 2009, Law (Ley) 3343 came into force, declaring government-led urbanization of Villa 31 mandatory,

with local roundtables (mesas) ultimately deciding how urbanization was to be carried out. Since 2014,

October 7th has marked the ‘National Day of Villeros2 Values’, falling on the birthday of villa icon Father

(Padre) Carlos Mugica (Perfil, 2014). Despite an apparent shift towards a more participatory and

1 Throughout this dissertation I have taken the liberty of changing interviewees’ names in all except those cases where an explicit desire for it to remain was expressed. Unless otherwise stated, the names of geographic areas, organisations, laws and public figures remain. 2 ‘Villero/a (-os/-as [pl.]) is a colloquial term for anything associated with the villa, including residents. While commonly used, it can be a derogative hence my personal use of ‘villa resident’ and variants.

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nuanced urbanization agenda, the reality does not seem to reflect this. As a representative from Mu,

an independent graphic publication, told me;

“Academics and policies have focused on land tenure…that can just mean gentrification”

“Just last year [2014] Papa Francisco villa was bulldozed”.

The reality of living in the villa remains one that is different to that experienced outside the villa.

According to ACIJ;

“Ambulances won’t enter without a police escort”

“The laws to do with renting are difficult because you have to have someone vouch for you: a

typist”.

Government urbanization has not been able to keep up with the pace of growth in the villas of the

city’s centre. Doubling between 1991 and 2001 and then again by 2008, the villa population within

Capital Federal has dramatically risen while Federal’s total population has hovered at just over three

million for decades (INDEC, 2004; Cravino, 2008; Bastia, 2014). The ‘Federal Social Housing Program’,

launched by the national government in 2004 with the aim of building 75,000 dwellings in 2006 alone,

has, of 2015, built fewer than 6,000 (van Gelder, Cravino and Ostuni, 2015), meaning that;

“Villas are now going vertical as they run out of land (Paolo, ACIJ).

However, the problem is not simply one of housing provision. As alluded to earlier, laws regarding

renting can be rigid and bureaucratic. This disproportionately impacts on villas, where more renting

occurs. Mateo, a radio host of La Corriente Villera Independiente (CVI), an organisation that represents

seventeen villas in Buenos Aires, explained;

“40% of people [in the villas] rent a room in their house”.

In addition, villa residents experience a differentiated position within other official structures whether

formalised, as in the case of the first quote below, or de facto, in the case of the second;

“The delegate system in the villas means they follow a different electoral system to the rest

of the city” (Julio, Mundo Villa)

“The police did nothing [when a young boy was shot in villa 21]… even though there was a

police post metres away” (Raquel, Mu).

Alongside these executive discriminations are others that intersect with villa residents’ everyday lives.

As the editor of villa newspaper Mundo Villa explained;

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“Villeros are dismissed as living for free but these are false prejudices … villa people pay five

times more for their gas and electricity”

The editors of La Garganta Poderosa pointed out that being from the villa can make finding a job can

make getting a job more difficult;

“There is no work because of villa discrimination”

“With a perfectly good CV, you won’t get any response using a villa address”

Prejudice on the basis of ethnicity was keenly felt;

“They treat us differently because of our skin colour” (Isabella, La Garganta Poderosa)

It was also reported within independent media. In January 2016, Mundo Villa commemorated a year

since the death of Franco Zárate, a Bolivian teenager who was killed, according to the online article

(Figure 3), “after an argument in which the young man received xenophobic insults about his skin

colour, him being the son of Bolivians”. In the main body of the article “the pain, the injustice and the

fatigue of seeing how this racist system tramples us, using every weapon it has to shut us up and kill

our identity" is expressed (Mundo Villa, 2016).

Figure 3: Mundo Villa online article “Racismo y Xenofobia: Un año sin Franco” (Racism and Xenophobia: a year without Franco). Source: mundovilla.com. Available from http://mundovilla.com/article.php?idArticle=2562.

What emerges as a complex web of social prejudices, inappropriate government policy and de facto

institutional discrimination is represented poorly within the mainstream media. When asked about

coverage of the villas, a member of the CVI, explained;

“The word ‘villa’ is just a synonym for drug dealing”

“Communications stigmatise the villas”

These observations were echoed by the editors of two English-language newspapers based in Buenos

Aires. James, editor of The Bubble, when asked about the ‘Day of Villeros Values’, stated that;

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“The framing on both sides is insulting to be honest…surely the value of ‘friendship’ is

universal? It’s infantilising”

“There is a good amount coverage within the mainstream but only really on deaths”.

An editor of The Argentina Independent explained how ethnicity-related prejudices were reproduced

in the mainstream media;

“The same tropes about the media appear again and again… I remember this one story so

vividly though… There’d been a fire in Barracas [a barrio in southern Buenos Aires] in which

four people had died… They went with “three people and a Bolivian died” in the report””.

A palpable determination within villas to attain appropriate urbanization measures was reflected in

the independent publications that came from them. In December 2015, an issue of La Garganta

Poderosa (Figure 4) was uploaded to the website of La Poderosa, the villa-based resistance group

behind the publication, along with the description “No change of our ideas, or work, or history, or

address: we are 25 assemblies shouting from below ‘Memory and Urbanization!’” (La Poderosa, 2016).

The balloons and banner in the photo that forms the back cover of the edition reflect similar

sentiments, declaring “No we won’t change” and “We continue to demand urbanization”.

Figure 4: La Garganta Poderosa 9/12/15 edition “Memoria y urbanización” Source: lapoderosa.org.ar Available from http://www.lapoderosa.org.ar/2015/12/memoria-y-urbanizacion-2/

22

In summary, the politics of urbanization experienced by villa residents are not solely to do with

infrastructure. Emotionally and culturally charged, urbanization is a matter of life and death, an

injustice among other injustices. Ill-reported in the media and ill-represented by the state, residents

of the villa continue to demand more appropriate urbanization.

23

Chapter Two: How are these politics represented by those in the villas?

“Social change does not require heroes; it requires some small group of limited human beings

to behave courageously on some days – and simply to persist on others”

Alison Brysk (1994)

“This magazine isn’t an end: it’s a means to an end”

Fransisco, editor of La Garganta Poderosa (‘The Mighty Throat’)

This chapter demonstrates that alongside more traditional methods of protest, the media has become

an increasingly important channel through which villa residents express their grievances and assert

their identity on their own terms. Independent but also mainstream channels have been employed,

in many cases in direct opposition to, and with the aim of contradicting, the reproduction of

conventional images and tropes of ‘the villa’. However, villa produced media does not simply shadow

the mainstream nor is there a clear dichotomy between villa media and others. Moreover, the range

of material produced does not only emanate from the villa into wider Buenos Aires, but also refracts

back into villas, with profound effects.

Looking at contemporary media and politics in Buenos Aires requires looking into the past. The

palpable significance of democracy in present-day Argentina stems from its absence during the

military dictatorship of 1976-83, when Argentines were denied their freedom of expression and in

tens of thousands of cases, their lives. References to a ‘return’ or ‘recovery’ of democracy after the

dictatorship came up in several interviews, often in relation to the Media Law. In December 2015,

newly elected President Mauricio Macri proposed the law be scrapped, leading to protestors taping

their mouths shut and holding placards that read ‘Macri the Dictator’ (International Business Times,

2015). Seeing the past in the present, interviewees explained that;

“Villa history is connected to the dictatorship and there is a solidarity that comes from the

experiences of being oppressed… The disappeared and silenced have a solidarity” (Raquel,

Mu)

“We still suffer the consequences of that time; the fragmentation, isolation and

marginalisation of left-wing groups” (Alexis, La Garganta Poderosa)

“CVI was born from protest, from the piqueteros [those who protest by blocking off roads] of

the 1990s and from their principles” (Mateo, CVI)

Protest has been a key method of expressing discontent in Argentina, as the actions of the Madres de

Plaza de Mayo (Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo) most famously, but by no means first, illustrated. It

24

remains a key method within the repertoires used by villa collectives today. In April 2014, the CVI

erected a protest carpa (tent) at the Obelisk monument and began a hunger strike that lasted fifty six

days (Periódico Vas, 2014). Protests were conceived of by interviewees as visual, necessary and

effective;

“To visualise it at the centre of Buenos Aires, to make sure the struggle was seen in a positive

light - that was the goal” (Mateo, CVI)

“At many times you need a protest to be heard… When you don’t think the government will

reply, there is no other recourse but to protest” (Julio, Mundo Villa)

“With the carpa, it was clear what was wanted… policing, flooding, deaths… There was no grey

area stuff” (Raquel, Mu)

The CVI experienced both positive and negative media attention during the carpa. According to

Mateo, a CVI radio host;

“The carpa had a big repercussion in the media... even CNN and Al Jazeera were there… it

took our organisation to a whole new level”

“Channel 26 painted the villas to be areas of crime. One of their reporters kept pushing a

woman at the carpa about drugs, asking her about drugs when she wasn’t talking about

that“

The relationships between the mainstream media and villa groups are complex and dynamic. In

some cases there are ties;

“Often villa residents get in touch to alert us to a story” (Charlie, Argentina Independent)

“The next aim is to try to get a mains [TV] channel” (Mateo, CVI)

“We use a famous person on the cover every time to make sure other organisations see

what we are doing” (Alexis, La Garganta Poderosa)

Villa-produced media often stems from existing social movements. La Poderosa began publishing La

Garganta Poderosa in 2010. With strong links to the villas of Capital Federal, La Poderosa is also

established in the provinces of Argentina, acting as a rare voice for the rural poor. The magazine is a

member of AReCIA, a collective of graphic media groups that are fighting for inclusion within the

Media Law. When I met with the editors of La Garganta Poderosa in Villa 31, they explained the void

their publication filled;

25

“La Garganta Poderosa is a tool to respond to reality… If La Poderosa is the voice, then La

Garganta Poderosa is the part that screams”

“Clarin3 aren’t going to communicate stories better than us…We represent a break from them

and we highlight what they miss; urbanization, discrimination, hurt”

Mundo Villa, a print and online newspaper began in 2006 under the initiative of Adams Ledesma and

Victor Ramos, journalists from Villa 31. Julio became editor after Ledesma was shot while confronting

drug dealers near his home in 2010. He explained the roots of the publication;

“We looked at the news no other group did and then published deep criticism about the

situation of marginalisation and abandonment”

“We take an editorial line, telling all our cultural activities, stories, immigration and work

news… It is necessary to say what is going on”

The role of these publications was acknowledged by other interviewees involved in media outside the

villas;

“There is fair coverage [of villa news] from certain media such as, of course, La Garganta

Poderosa. Those guys sell 15,000 copies a month” (James, The Bubble)

“We link up with news channels like Mundo Villa to try and broaden people’s views of the

villa” (Paolo, ACIJ)

“The Poderosa has a massive readership and huge impact… it’s incredible” (Raquel, Mu)

The 2009 Media Law has allowed both publications, and the Movimiento Popular La Dignidad (MPLD),

an umbrella organisation of which the CVI is part, to start branching out into radio and TV;

“Villa 23 now has channel 13 on public TV that is open to all and we did it… it’s fantastic!”

(Julio, Mundo Villa)

“Getting a TV signal for Retiro was a crazy idea that worked, through the cooperative” (Julio,

Mundo Villa)

“Since 2010, the radio show [FM Carterva 97.3] has run twenty-four hours a day – next it’s the

TV (Mateo, CVI)

3 El Grupo Clarín is the largest media conglomerate in Argentina. 270,000 copies of its newspaper Clarín circulate in Argentina everyday (Telam, 2013).

26

The significance of these publications and the movements behind them cannot be derived from the

sales made or plethora of media they extend into, despite the importance of these. For Alexis and the

other editors of La Garganta Poderosa, the publication is part of a wider process of change;

“This magazine isn’t an end: it’s a means to an end…That means and end should not be kept

separate, it’s one and the same”

For Mateo and the CVI, the organisation and publication were part of a much wider process of radical

change;

“If there are people who cannot carry out their lives, that’s a problem for us all. Even if it is

guaranteed for me, it’s not the same because it’s not for everyone”

“If we don’t develop organisations to change society, what are we?”

The content of the MPLD’s magazine Nuestra Voz (‘Our Voice’) echoes this ideology. In their June 2011

edition, an article titled “The Other Education: The creation of autonomous education in the

Zapatista’s territory” appears. Within it, an image with text that reads “We want a world which fits

many worlds” features prominently (Figure 5).

Figure 5: Nuestra Voz 1/6/11 Edition No. 1. Source: mpld.com. Available from:

http://www.youblisher.com/p/453933-Nuestra-Voz-N-1/

27

Julio of Mundo Villa explained how articles were seen as more than just lines of texts and were having

an impact on the community;

“The villas are unified within the publication… There is a real sense of pride and community”

“A news story may be used as a tool to solve problems”

The principles of organisations and individuals are reproduced in the way their publications are run

and theorised. Within Mundo Villa, Julio and Tomas’ aims were to report news in the villas and change

misconceptions about villa life;

“We have to get the kids understanding how they are framed and that’s the aim of the

workshop… get people learning skills, learning that their voice is legitimate” (Tomas)

“The battle is a cultural one” (Julio)

To summarise, interviewees explained how Ley SCA has allowed independent publications to extend

their reach into the audiovisual spectrum and the mainstream media. Villa news and urbanization

demands have been heard by more people than ever before and are noticed by those in mainstream

outlets. Alongside this, a powerful graphic media (magazine) scene has been a key medium through

which organisations such as the CVI and La Garganta Poderosa have been able to promote their

organisations’ work and ideology.

28

Chapter Three: What is the relationship between the villa and the formal state?

The struggle for urbanization and the use of public and independent media involve relationships

between villa residents and the formal state (or more specifically, the municipal or national

governments’ effects). This chapter presents evidence that relationships between the villa and the

state exist but that can be fragile and fragmented. There was a sense that the state did not want to

help and in cases where it did, it had done so inappropriately, adding to villa residents’

misrepresentation.

As outlined in the Site Introduction, Buenos Aires is governed by overlapping powers. There was a

sense that this resulted in an inefficient bureaucracy that hindered potential progress regarding

urbanization. Paolo at ACIJ informed me that;

“Policy on urbanization is fragmented. There are five different buildings to do with housing in

three different buildings”

“Urbanization is under all and at the same time none of their jurisdiction”.

Within the autonomous city (CABA), the delegate system operates in villas, meaning that villa

residents experience voting differently from other citizens. As Julio of Mundo Villa explained;

“Delegates in the villas are close to PRO [the centre-right party of Mauricio Macri]”

“The system ends up with lots of little problems going to a representative who has all the

responsibility and has to go out on a limb to criticise the government”.

Mateo, of CVI, when I asked how the MPLD kindergarten where we met was funded, explained that;

“The government pays for some salaries and the rest comes from activities, fairs, the bar and

the café in Villa Crespo”

The creation of a Secretariat of Habitat and Inclusion (SECHI) in 2011 marked what seemed like a move

to a more participatory coordination of urbanization issues, one where ‘the community are the

protagonist’ (Gobierno de la Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, 2016). However, as Mateo of the CVI

informed me;

“The relationship between SECHI and the villa is not permanent… They don’t want to listen to

us… Resources we demand from the government are not given to us because they are nice

but because we tear their hands off. The government stigmatises us. There are no schools, no

social assistance”.

There was a pervading sense among interviewees that the state and its agencies did not want to help;

29

“The deaths we experience are preventable – the laws are in place… they just don’t care

enough to implement them” (Charlie, Argentina Independent)

“Social issues are getting worse generally, not better. Urbanization is totally stagnant” (Tomas,

Mundo Villa).

Talking to Julio of Mundo Villa about the proposed building of a cultural centre in Villa 31, on the site

Adams Ledesma’s house used to be he revealed the role of La Campora, the youth wing of Frente para

la Victoria (FPV), Cristina Kirchner’s political party;

“It’s a question of politics and if completed it would give power to a cultural centre that

wouldn’t be run by the Campora and, well, the Campora want to be our saviours”

It is clear it is not simply a case of ‘the state’ abandoning villas completely. In the example above, a

faction of the state is accused of trying to be too involved in villa culture. Often then, the state does

not help in the right ways: ways that resonate well with villa residents. Members of La Garganta

Poderosa told me about the government’s approach to ID (DNI) cards. SECHI vans had been coming

into the villa and setting up a stall from the back of the van in order to issue newly compulsory ID cards

to villa residents. One editor felt excluded by this. She explained;

“We don’t want the government to bring things to us. It’s not necessarily bad but it excludes

us. By bringing the answers here it means we don’t have to leave”

Paolo (ACIJ) provided insight into the experiences of villa residents with regards to social housing led

by the municipal government;

“The cruel thing is that the septic tank was only there because of inadequate government

urbanization”

“50% of social housing is lacking… And deaths are the consequence”

“The project now is about trying to get the government to be more responsible over its social

housing”.

State media was identified as another contested arena. It is not that the state are entirely absent

from the processes of urbanization, nor that state-owned media never covers the villa. It was rather

that people felt the state was manipulating the truth, perpetuating false information into the public

consciousness. Members of Mundo Villa and ACIJ had similar stories to tell;

30

“Because a villa in Belgrano in the North was dry, the government said the city was fine.

Pillitones in Barracas was under water but they clearly weren’t considered part of the city

because she [President Kirchner] said the city hadn’t flooded” (Julio, Mundo Villa)

“A politician claimed that because a villa at La Reja was 90% urbanised, the city was

urbanised” (Paolo, ACIJ)

The ‘positive’ framing of the villa in state media, embodied in the ‘National Day of Villeros Values’

resonated poorly with James at The Bubble;

“I have nothing but criticism of the current government when it comes to the villas. When

they frame villas as good, it’s problematic”

“Villa residents are used as a pawn politically”

As part of the 2009 Media Law, the state’s power over the media was reduced further than it had

ever been. The move was seen widely as being democratic and radical and yet, the state was

perceived as still meddling in the independent sector. As a La Garganta Poderosa editor put it,

“We were censored when we tried to publish the article where the Boca player talked about

[the boy who died in the septic tank]… It was our most sensitive case but we did it and we

published a piece next to it about censorship”.

As much as the relationship between the state and villa residents is complicated, the state is not the

only agent of influence in the villa. Interviewees highlighted the contemporary importance of villa

priests (Padres) in communities;

“In villa 21 and Barracas the Padres like Pepe are still the icons” (Julio, Mundo Villa)

“All the villa priests have this love of the people […] They are the best authority on the villa.”

(Julio, Mundo Villa)

“The priests? Yeah, they’re not like your ordinary priests. They’re young and wear leather

and teach kids about contraception. The one in Villa 31 is gorgeous and very popular”

(Raquel, Mu)

It was also clear that issues taken with governance and bureaucracy were not issues taken with

democracy, which people defended;

“The conflict of the past eight years has mostly been within a political system, a healthy

democratic system” (Charlie, Argentina Independent)

31

“Social movements need to come together and get people back voting. Many villeros don’t

vote, in a city of 3 million people where ten percent of them live in villas” (Julio, Mundo Villa).

Apparent in interviews was the sense that the state had a duty to provide infrastructure and services

to villa residents. It was not the case that a totally absent state left behind a ‘state of exception’

(Dieken, 2005). Rather, the actions of the municipal government were regarded as often inappropriate

or reluctant and their use of media manipulative, leaving relations fragile. Democracy and the

alternative authority figure of the villa priest emerged as sacrosanct.

32

Analysis

Manuel Castells perceived that cities were woven through with three main conflicts: experience,

production and power. Thematically, my dissertation can be thought of in terms of these three

overlapping domains. In this chapter, I analyse the findings of my research along these themes, in

conjunction with relevant research and theoretical literature, before a concluding discussion.

Experience

Urbanization is one of the greatest struggles currently faced by residents of Villa 31. Despite recent

suggestions that so-called ‘Villa Values’ and residents are becoming integrated with the wider urban

fabric of Buenos Aires, across Capital Federal villa residents see that little has changed. Severely lacking

social housing and temporary sanitation measures continue to cause deaths and news of more

permanent alternatives remains absent. The growing infrastructural disparity in Buenos Aires is seen

to reflect an increasing income gap, the consequence of a city where use value has succumbed to

exchange value (Altimir et al, 2002; Pirez, 2002; Auyero and de Lara, 2012). As of 2006, villa residents

made up 10% of the total population of AMBA, up from 5.2% in 1991 (Cravino et al, 2008; Salvia, 2007).

As the villas have grown, so too have gated neighbourhoods (barrios privados), producing what Heller

and Evans described as “the most durable and disturbing form of contemporary inequality” (2010:

433).

The reality for villa residents is one where they are regarded as second class citizens within both official

and informal structures. Besides administrative neglect at the hands of the police, law-makers and

government agencies, residents experience the stigma that comes with having a villa address, one

that reflects further prejudices about ethnicity and narcotics. Lawson and Elwood (2015) discuss how

framings of an idealized ‘middle-class’ citizenry in Buenos Aires build on historical narratives of

ethnicity and poverty, scripting the working class and indigent as immoral, immobile and villas as

places where ‘blacks’ live4. Similarly, Tanja Bastia (2014) and Lombardo (2012) studied how ethnic

subcultures, of Bolivian and Paraguayan immigrants especially, emerged in villas and how formal

representatives of the villas (delegates) would base residents’ legitimacy on their ethnicity.

Experiences of urbanization thus cannot be considered exclusive to other experiences of living in the

villa, even in a study that takes urbanization as its focus. It also obvious that there are multiple

experiences of living within the villa, as of any space. Women interviewed in my own and others’

studies experienced domestic violence far more frequently than men (Auyero and de Lara, 2012).

Residents with Bolivian heritage told me that they felt ‘trampled’ (pisoteada) because of their

4 ‘Black’ and ‘black head’ are not necessarily associated with African phenotypic traits, but with the poor, mestiza (mixed race), and/or migrant populations (see Grimson’s 2012 Mitomanías argentinas)

33

ethnicity. Distinctions between villas are also made by residents: in a number of interviews in Villa 31,

Riachuelo, a settlement in south-eastern Buenos Aires was regarded as containing the “discriminated

of the discriminated” and served as an example of how bad things could be. As Grimson and Segura

(2016) point out, multiple meanings have been ascribed to villas (and informal settlements more

broadly) over time; seen as full of potential by modernists in the 1960s, villas became regarded as the

home of revolution during the 1970s but an obstacle to progress during the military dictatorship

(1976-1983). Recently however, it seems they have become inscribed as spaces of crime and

immorality (Auyero, 2001), places not worth providing for. This was a sentiment that reverberated

through all interviews and publications.

Production

Interviewees perceived of protest as a necessary and effective method of projecting grievances and

demands. Protest in Argentina has historically highlighted failings of democracies and dictatorships

alike and it remains in villa organisations’ repertoires with regards to urbanization (Nouzeilles and

Montaldo, 2002). However, both mainstream and independent media have increasingly moved to the

centre of these repertoires. Seeking to harness the power of communications and an audience that

extends beyond a group’s membership is nothing new. In Latin America, however, issues of rights,

equality and access are being reconfigured a prerogative of citizens, not just the press (Breuer and

Welp, 2014). Part of a continental shift to the Left, there exists a consensus that democracy cannot

survive without the inclusion of the marginalized (Auyero et al, 2013). It became clear in interviews

that villa residents felt excluded by the Argentine mainstream media as well as by state authorities.

External media ignored residents’ voices, instead only reporting on their deaths, reproducing

damaging tropes as it did so. However, despite problematic reporting, organisations such as the CVI

admitted they needed mainstream media attention coverage and were seeking to extend into it

through radio and TV channels.

The 2009 Ley SCA catalysed the development of independent audio-visual products and bolstered

existing publications’ incursion into mainstream media. A great expansion of independently produced

content in mainstream TV and radio now mean it represents 33% of all produced (Mauersberger,

2012). Alongside a thriving graphic media scene, villa-produced media has been understood as

successfully challenging simplistic representations of the villa and reporting the news “nobody else

did”5. If media is the “central political stage” that “controls access to the fishbowl of public life”

(Waisbord, 2004: 1078), then villa residents’ voices are represented on that stage like never before.

Their publications and audio-visual output is consumed by an audience that extends beyond the villa,

5 Julio, Mundo Villa

34

often across Argentina. Having “the voice that screams” heard so loudly was imperative for the editors

of independent publications, especially given it was heard on its own terms and untainted by

mainstream biases.

Publications were seen as tools to securing better living standards for villa residents and in this way

they were part of a process: “a means to an end, rather than the end”, to paraphrase Alexis. Just as

critical theory and media proponents see the “role of radical media […] as trying to disrupt the silence

to counter the lies, to provide the truth”, so too do the editors of La Garganta Podersoa, Mu and

Mundo Villa (Downing, 2001: 16). James C. Scott conceived that ‘hidden transcripts’, critiques of

power that can only be expressed in certain spaces, found their “full-throated expression” in social

sites such as slave lodgings, private languages or euphemistic songs (Scott, 1990). With non-

commerical, non-state independent media now ratified as an essential component of Argentine media

as of 2009, can we consider these voices hidden transcripts, if they ever were? Hebert Marcuse

contemplated that independent media does not lose its independence upon entering the mainstream

and accepted the legitimacy of “working against […] while working in them” (Marcuse, 1972: 55). His

notion of ‘repressive tolerance’ considered how a tolerance of critical ideas within mainstream media

could be repressive when the volume of ideas available mean critical ideas are subsumed under, or

within the language of the ruling ideas (Marcuse, 1965:96). With 33% of the audiovisual spectrum

reserved for independent media, there is no apparent competition of commercial, state and

independent media. However, villa residents continue to be affected by mainstream media’s

representations of their neighbourhoods and the prejudices assigned to them, within and outside the

media, using independent media as a way to counter these. Thus a form of competition exists but it

appears that a more democratic media scene has allowed, as Scott aptly puts it “the luxury […] to

trade a slap for a slap” (Scott, 1990. pp. xi).

Power

Javier Auyero (2006) observed that in the aftermath of the 2001-2 economic crash in Argentina, the

government, rather than capitalists and corporations, became recognised as the betrayer of common

interest. While the scope of my research cannot confirm whether this is still the case, fragmented

urbanization policies were regarded by interviewees as the result of failing state authorities. The

connections that did exist between villas and the government, most notably through SECHI, seemed

fragile. SECHI, the urbanization agency of the municipal government, was accused by interviewees of

helping in the wrong ways, by bringing ID vans into the villas, for example, adding to experiences of

marginalisation. The state’s use of the media to generalise about urbanization was heavily criticised

and added to the sense that villas residents and their culture were being used as ‘a political pawn’.

35

At the beginning of this dissertation I expressed a desire to move beyond reproducing an account of

social movements in relation to state power. The relationships between villa residents and the state

(municipal and national) were multi-dimensional. While social movements and residents raised their

voices through independent outlets, unregulated by the state, they could only do so because of a

formal law passed by national Congress. However, Ley SCA resulted from a social movement referred

to most commonly as ‘the Coalition’, whose twenty-one point plan became the foundation on which

the Media Law was constructed (Mauersberger, 2012). Thus, Castell’s statement that social

movements are never “agents of structural change” appears to not ring true (Castells, 1983: 329).

Even if it were argued that the structural change in this case was ultimately the result of a Senate vote

and a President who sought to benefit from the law given its human rights focus, Argentine social

movements have successfully mobilised numerous times to overthrow governments and laws

(Nouzeilles and Montaldo, 2002). However, tautological thinking over the role of the state in this way

is unhelpful and Castells himself reminds us to consider power within informal settlements. That some

informal settlement residents lack an identity within social movements, because there aren’t social

movements in existence or because they do not feel included within those that do exist, must be

remembered. Not being able to express experiences in avenues of protest “outside of the protection

of established political forces” or everyday survival, does not mean those voices do not exist.

Argentine media legislation, or indeed any media legislation, as democratic as it is perceived to be,

cannot represent all voices equally. While my interviewees overwhelmingly supported the media law,

they cannot be considered representative of all villa residents, nor all Villa 31 residents.

36

Conclusion

I began this dissertation with the aim of investigating how residents of Villa 31 navigate the politics of

urbanization. I asked;

What are the contemporary politics of urbanization in Buenos Aires?

How are these politics represented by those in the villas?

What is the relationship between the villa and the formal state?

It was made clear in interviews and publications alike that villa residents’ demands for more

appropriate urbanization would be relentless and uncompromising. It emerged that the politics of

urbanization experienced by residents of Villa 31 existed nested within a wider politics, one that is

reproduced within both official and informal structures. Villa residents experienced life as second class

citizens. Unwilling to help and sporadic in the assistance it gave, the municipal authorities represented

within SECHI were paradoxically accused of being too involved in the decision making process but

negligent in their provision of adequate infrastructure. Private and state-run sectors of the Argentine

mainstream media were identified as playing a critical role in the perpetuation of simplistic

representations of villas. It became clear that Argentina’s 2009 Ley SCA has allowed a number of

independent publications to expand into the audio-visual spectrum of mainstream media, catalysing

their attempts to counteract these and provide more truthful accounts. A graphic media scene that

has expanded alongside has further allowed social movements to promote their organisations’ work

and ideologies, on their own terms. The range of material produced within the villas of Capital Federal

emanate outwards but also reflect back, unifying residents by projecting their voices within, as well

as beyond, communities.

Given the deeply ideological and emotional nature of the publications, experiences and interactions

discussed during the research process, it remains my belief that critical theory can inform study of

social movements’ engagement with media. The explicitly normative theory promotes a deep

questioning of how media is produced, what it (re)produces and what this can reveal about wider

society. Critical theory’s Marxist roots lend it to studies of media within capitalist systems as well as

those oriented against them. Critical theory complements deconstructionist approaches within social

movement studies and inherently call into question binaries such as ‘state vs social movement’. In this

investigation, it was clear that the importance of democracy and human rights to residents of Buenos

Aires influenced understandings of media and the role of the state. Ideological media calls for

ideological theory.

37

Appendix A: Summary of Interviews

Date Format Location Participants Length (hours)

10/9/15 Interview (English) Soho Hollywood 1: James, editor of The Bubble 1

12/9/15 Interview (Spanish) Villa Crespo 1: Julio, editor of Mundo Villa 1

14/9/15 Interview (Spanish) *No audio permitted

Barracas 1: Mateo, radio host at CVI (Corriente Villera Independiente)

1.5

15/9/15 Interview (English and Spanish)

Microcentro 1: Paolo, ACIJ (Asociación Civil por la Igualdad y la Justicia)

1

19/9/15 Tea meeting and abortion debate (Spanish)

Villa 31 5: Women from Villa 31 that were members of Mala Junta, the women’s branch of Patria Grande, a social movement

19/9/15 Interview (English) Villa 31 1: Raquel, journalist and activist at Mu, an independent publication

1

22/9/15 Radio workshop and broadcast (Spanish)

Villa Soldati 6: Tomas and other members of “Radio without borders”, a Bolivian community radio, supported by Mundo Villa

23/9/15 Walking interview, exploring the political street art of Barracas

Barracas 1: Alicia, tour guide at “Graffitimundo” and enginnering student in Buenos Aires

1.5

23/9/15 Interview (Spanish) Microcentro 4: Members of AReCIA, graphic media collective

1

25/9/15 Interview, after an editors’ meeting (Spanish) * No audio permitted

Villa 31 6: Editors and contributors to La Garganta Poderosa

1

27/9/15 Interview (English) Palermo 1: Charlie, editor of the Argentina Independent

1

29/9/15 Interview (Spanish) Retiro 1: Carla, local translator and member of Mala Junta

1

38

Appendix B: Interview Schedule

Outline + Introductions + Statement of research aims, purpose of investigation + Consent forms/declarations + Any questions? --- Begin interview --- Basics + What is your role within the organisation/publication? + What are the aims of organisation/publication? What is its role, its history? + “Your website/ most recent edition says […]. Can you explain the significance of that?” Experiences + How easy has it been to achieve what you want within your publication/organisation? + What are any barriers or hindrances? + What is the media scene like in Buenos Aires? + What is the political scene like? + Protests like the CVI’s in April – how effective are these? Media Law (if relevant i.e. if interviewee was involved in media, independent or otherwise) + Has Ley SCA affected how you do things at all? If so, how? + What kind of impact has the law had? + Has it changed people’s perceptions of villas? Or anything else? + Has it changed how the big groups like Clarín operate? + What does the law mean in terms of Argentina’s political situation? Villas + What is the organisations’/publications’ relationship with the villa, if any? + What are the villas like? Are there differences between other barrios? + How are villas thought of by others? + What’s changed in the villa? + What needs to? Debrief

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Appendix C: Copy of poster used for proposed auto-photography project

40

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