City of Crisis

Abstract

Ethnographic and questionnaire data from two surveys, in 1977 and 1987, of households in the southern Mexican city of Oaxaca, are compared to show the effects of the 1980s economic crisis on urban households. The crisis has resulted in the transfer of workers from the formal sector to the informal sector, and consequently lowered wages. This has had profound effects on household structure, as they have increased the number of workers, mainly women, to keep income at minimum levels. Households that adapt successfully have more members and own (have built) their own home. The overwhelming conclusion from analysis of interhousehold sharing data is that, with the cut-back in government resources, households are increasingly going it alone.