Uppsala Universitet

This thesis departs from the assumption that the poor in Argentina are faced with specific difficulties due to structures in the surrounding environment. By examining the Argentinean piquetero movement surging in the backwater of the nation’s economic depression of the 1990’s, we describe how contextual factors influence the emergence and mobilization of protest among people with scarce economic and political assets. The theoretical base elaborates on the thoughts of authors belonging to the Social Structure and Resource Mobilization schools on how the economic, institutional and representative structures have influenced "why" and "in what way" poor people mobilize and turn to protest. The findings of the theoretical base then serve as a guide when establishing the areas within the context that we examine. When describing the development of the economic, institutional and representative structures we illustrate how these areas have deteriorated during the 1990s. Through a study of the national piquetero movement, the findings are related to the emergence of the protest actions and the organized mobilization that occurred towards the end of the last decade. In order to further discuss how contextual factors influence the political behaviour of the poor, we perform case studies in three popular neighbourhoods. By combining our case study findings with the two theories of Social Structure and Resource Mobilization we have been able to conclude that the increased poverty, the lack of channels to influence, as well as the perception of the government as provider of civic basic needs and its failure as such, has left the poor part of the population with no other alternative but to turn to protest in order to pressure for more social aid programs and gain political influence. We argue that the escalating poverty created a need among the population that could not be met by the weak municipalities, which lacked the necessary resources to implement extensive social programs. As a consequence of the breakdown of the welfare state the piquetero organizations surged as providers of social services. Through their role as distributors of government money these neighbourhood organizations have become an alternative to former clientelist structures. Protest has become a way of negotiating with the state when the representative structure failed to adapt to the new realities of unemployment and poverty. The crisis of December 2001 created a political opportunity for the movement. The chaotic political and economic situation and the weak position of the government diminished the possibility of the government to ignore or repress protesters. In return, the value of protest as a political currency rose, thus forcing the government to concessions in the field of social aid programs.