Approaches to forms of organization and political actions in spaces of social exclusion from a perspective of political anthropology: analysis of a polygon on the southeast of Ciudad Juarez, in the northern border of Mexico

Abstract

This study identify the forms of political associations and action of population in places of social exclusion from the perspective of the political anthropology, concluding that this population, more than being apolitical or de-politicized for not passing through the institutional arenas, develop an informal political practice underlying of bureaucratic institutions. To achieve this, we worked with seven groups of people in a polygon on the southeast of Ciudad Juarez, in the northern border of Mexico, settled in closed residential areas with small houses made by the government away from the city, where young and workers of the maquiladora industry families live, and using techniques as interview, in depth-interview and ethnography. It was found that these populations develop a form of doing politics that does not pass through the State legitimization and discourses, but rather create an underground system of negotiations, organizations and practices to manage collective services and needs in a personal and informal way. These fi ndings are not shared by the classical political science, which have focused on those practices that pass through the institutional arenas, so it concludes with a theoretical turn into political anthropology.