Abstract

MOCTEZUMA MENDOZA, Vicente. Experience and symbolic meanings of the inhabitants of urban public housing complexes in Mexico: Segregation, difference and distinction. Estud. demogr. urbanos [online]. 2017, vol.32, n.3, pp.487-514. ISSN 2448-6515.  https://doi.org/10.24201/edu.v32i3.1723.

The peripheries of Mexican cities have recently been transformed by the massive emergence of urban public housing complexes. Although they have been analyzed them from a variety of approaches by a number of researchers, the subjective dimension has tended to be overlooked. This article analyzes the experience and meanings constructed by their inhabitants about these spaces. We discovered various tensions and contradictions experienced by low-income sectors in housing access, such as the mobilization of desires and the development of symbolic strategies of differentiation and social distinction (with weak or insufficient objective bases), which reveal complex conditions of segregation and social exclusion.

Keywords : social housing; commodification; segregation; social distinction; symbolic dimension; popular sectors; social exclusion.