Moving Away, Moving Onward: Displacement Pressures and Divergent Neighborhood Politics in Buenos Aires

Abstract

This paper focuses on two Buenos Aires neighborhoods that face displacement pressures. Building on research about urban mobilization in a range of cities, this paper highlights how collaboration can vary in its configuration and orientation at the neighborhood level, despite similar circumstances. Data include ethnographic excerpts from the experiences of residents who fight to remain in their homes but ultimately leave, which trace out distinct neighborhood trajectories—moving onward and moving away. These accounts indicate divergence in how residents respond to displacement threats due to the differently situated, networked nature of the two sites as political spaces. Moreover, distinct logics of collaboration inflect ongoing displacement politics in the threatened neighborhoods as well as in the destinations of displaced residents.