Abstract

MERENSON, Silvina. A Place in the World I Inhabit. Native Archives, Social Imagination, and Self-perception of Class. Estud. sociol [online]. 2023, vol.41, n.122, pp.353-381.  Epub Oct 13, 2023. ISSN 2448-6442.  https://doi.org/10.24201/es.2023v41n122.2285.

This article provides offers a reflection on the uses and potentialities of the archives found in ethnographic fieldwork. After reviewing the analogies -and their limits- between archival and ethnographic research, we analyzed approach the archive on concerning Gabriela, a resident of a railway neighborhood located in the north of Greater Buenos Aires (Argentina). We show indicate how the way in which the intersection of the words written in the past and the words spoken in the interviews by our interlocutors can enhance add to the density of ethnographic data. We argue that this intersection increases our skills expands our competencies when it comes to “being there” and what we think and write on that basis. In this case, the links between the social imagination and the self-perception of class.

Keywords : ethnographic research; native archives; self-perception of class; working-class neighbourhoods; Argentina.