Journal Article

PATIENTS OF THE STATE: An Ethnographic Account of Poor People’s Waiting

Auyero, Javier

2011

Overview

Drawing on six months of ethnographic fieldwork in the main welfare office of the city of Buenos Aires, this article dissects poor people's lived experiences of waiting. The article examines the welfare office as a site of intense sociability amidst pervasive uncertainty. Poor people's waiting experiences persuade the destitute of the need to be patient, thus conveying the implicit state request to be compliant clients. An analysis of the sociocultural dynamics of waiting helps us understand how (and why) welfare clients become not citizens but patients of the state. Basado en seis meses de trabajo etnográfico en la sala de espera del Ministerio de Desarrollo Social de la ciudad de Buenos Aires, este trabajo examina las experiencias que los pobres urbanos tienen de la espera. El artículo estudia la sala de espera como un sitio de intensa sociabilidad en medio de una generalizada incertidumbre. Las experiencias de la espera convencen a los destituidos que tienen que ser pacientes, transmitiendo—de manera implícita—un mensaje estatal: tienen que ser beneficiarios sumisos. Un análisis de las dinámicas socioculturales de la espera nos ayuda a entender cómo (y porqué) los beneficiarios de los programas de asistencia se convierten no en ciudadanos sino en pacientes del estado.

• Publisher: Latin American Studies Association,Cambridge University Press
• Subject: America / Argentina / Argentina - ethnology / Bgi / Prodig / Buenos Aires / Buenos Aires, Argentina / Children / Cities / Citizens / Clients / Compliance / Cultural factors / Delivery of Health Care - economics / Delivery of Health Care - ethnology / Delivery of Health Care - history / Delivery of Health Care - legislation & jurisprudence / Ethnographic research / Ethnography / Ethnology / Field notes / Field study / Field work / Fieldwork / History, 20th Century / History, 21st Century / Hospitals, Public - economics / Hospitals, Public - history / Hospitals, Public - legislation & jurisprudence / Housing subsidies / Human geography / Low income groups / Mothers / Paperwork / Patients / Patients - history / Patients - legislation & jurisprudence / Patients - psychology / Paydays / Persuasion / Poor / Population geography and social geography / Poverty / Poverty - economics / Poverty - ethnology / Poverty - history / Poverty - legislation & jurisprudence / Poverty - psychology / Power / Public Assistance - economics / Public Assistance - history / Public Assistance - legislation & jurisprudence / Public assistance programs / Research review studies / Sociability / Social Class - history / Social factors / Social geography / Social relations. Intercultural and interethnic relations. Collective identity / Social sciences / Social structure and social relations / Social Welfare - economics / Social Welfare - ethnology / Social Welfare - history / Social Welfare - legislation & jurisprudence / Social Welfare - psychology / Sociocultural Factors / Sociology / Uncertainty / Urban Health - history / Urban Health Services - economics / Urban Health Services - history / Urban Health Services - legislation & jurisprudence / Urban Population - history / Waiting / Waiting rooms / Welfare / Welfare Recipients / Welfare reform