How Did Finance CapitalInfiltrate the World of theUrban Poor? Homeownershipand Social Fragmentationin a Spanish Neighborhood

Jaime Palomera ^[1]
1. [1] Universitat de Barcelona
  
  Universitat de Barcelona
  
  Barcelona, España
Localización: International journal of urban and regional research, ISSN 0309-1317, Vol. 38, Nº. 1, 2014, págs. 218-235
Idioma: inglés
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Resumen
- When working-class localities in developed countries are in question, socialfragmentation is often analyzed along ethnic lines. Instead, this article claims that itis more critically fruitful to explore fragmentation in terms of people’s relations withthe state and different forms of capital. It does this by considering housing in Spain asa key resource that connects state policies both with the forms of reproduction and(dis)organization of the disadvantaged, and with the development of real estate andfinance capital. First, it unfolds the historical formation of the Spanish ‘homeownershipculture’ and the construction–finance complex. Second, starting from an in-depthethnography of a peripheral neighborhood in Barcelona, it emphasizes theembeddedness of recent financialization in the livelihood strategies of poor households.Finally, it shows how the process led to a commodification and erosion of thosesocial relations on which it partially depended, thereby exposing problems for classreproduction and fracture lines among the urban poor.