Networks and Marginality

Networks and Marginality: Life in a Mexican Shantytown describes the life and survival of economically marginal or poor people in Cerrada del Cóndor, a shantytown of about 200 houses in the southern part of Mexico City. The field work is carried out between 1969 and 1971 using combined anthropological and quantitative methods.

This book is composed of 10 chapters and begins with an overview of the theoretical concepts essential for an adequate comprehension of the later chapters, followed by a summary of the development and evolution of Mexico City as they relate to Cerrada del Cóndor. Considerable chapters examine the migration process, the economy, the family and kinship patterns, and the reciprocity networks and associated mechanisms of survival value in the shantytown. The remaining chapters discuss some of the relevant theoretical points raised by the findings, including the reciprocity, the confianza concept, and the importance of informal economic exchange in complex urban societies.

This book will prove useful to economists, anthropologists, social scientists, and researchers.

Foreword

Preface to the English Edition

1 Introduction

Some Preliminary Findings

A Design for Survival

City and Countryside in Latin America

An Ecological View of Migration

Urban Growth and Shantytowns

A Theory of Marginalization

2 The Setting

Mexico: Urbanization and Growth

Underemployment in Mexico

Mexico City: An Overview

Low-Income Housing in Mexico City

Cerrada del Cóndor

Some Impressions of Shantytown Life

3 Migration

An Ecological Model of the Migration Process

Migration Processes in Latin America

A Historical Sketch of Migration in Mexico

Migration and Cerrada del Cóndor

4 Shantytown Economy

Cerrada del Cóndor: Occupational Structure

Unpaid Family Labor

Economic Levels

Occupation and Economic Level

Income and Economic Level

Housing and Property Ownership in Cerrada del Cóndor

Material Belongings

Economic Level and Life-Styles

Schooling and Economic Levels

An Informal Rotating Credit Institution: Tanda

Summary and Conclusions

5 Family and Kinship

Marital Roles

The Nuclear Family

The Household: Definition

Types of Households

Some Comparisons of Households

The Residential Pattern

Kinship

Relatives in the Country

6 Networks of Reciprocal Exchange

Classification of Reciprocity Networks

Networks in Cerrada del Cóndor

Analysis of a Residential Complex: Pericos Court

Networks and Kindreds: The Villela Macronetwork

Networks and Kinship

7 Compadrazgo

Compadrazgo in Cerrada del Cóndor

Some Conclusions on Compadrazgo in Cerrada del Cóndor

8 Formal and Informal Associations

Cuatismo

Local and National Associations

9 Reciprocity and Confianza

What Is Reciprocity?

Scales of Reciprocity in Cerrada del Cóndor

Confianza: A Variable of Reciprocal Exchange

Confianza and Exchange in Cerrada del Cóndor

Patron-Client Relations: The Cacique

A Final Note on Forms of Exchange

10 Conclusions

Some Basic Concepts

Networks

Living in Cerrada del Cóndor

The Future of Reciprocity

References

Index