Everything for My Children: Social Policies and Traces of Hope

Abstract

Since the late nineteenth century, state actions have aimed at alleviating poverty and inequality involved in the development of capitalism. For the particular case of Argentina, we have highlighted in other works some attributes of the state’s interventions on vulnerable populations over the last decades. These attributes include their mass character, that is, the large number of programs and subjects receiving them (De Sena, 2011); their lifetime coverage, where at each stage of life (from pregnancy to old age) there is a subsidy for the poor subject; and reciprocity, that is to say, receiving aid in the form of a lifetime subsidy in response to conditions of poverty always has a conditionality, a “task” or “activity” that the person who receives it must carry out. This article outlines the narratives that the recipients themselves of social policies produce and that imply their practices of feeling regarding hope. Sixty-four interviews were conducted in the districts of La Matanza and the City of Buenos Aires between 2014 and 2019; the interviews include their stories and their hopes regarding the future of their children.