Between descent and declassment in dependent capitalist societies

Biographization processes in mobility trajectories in post-convertibility Argentina (2003-2019)

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14244/contemp.v16.1440

Abstract

In this article we address trajectories of social descent, a rare topic in studies on social mobility in Argentina and Latin America. From a qualitative and biographical perspective, we analyze the educational and work trajectories of those who have traveled, intra- or intergenerationally, paths of social descent or declassment, adopting a classification into three social classes (service, intermediate and working). The results show a process of biographization of mobility trajectories linked to the impregnation of individualistic and private values typical of the neoliberal model.

Author Biographies

Leticia Muñiz Terra, CIMECS-IdIHCS, UNLP-CONICET

Leticia Muñiz Terra holds a PhD in Social Sciences and a Master's degree in Labour Social Sciences from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, and a BA in Sociology from the National University of La Plata (UNLP), Argentina. She is currently an Adjunct Researcher at CONICET, working at the Centro Interdisciplinario de Metodología de las Ciencias Sociales. (CIMECS - IdIHCS. CONICET- UNLP. FaHCE). She is a regular adjunct professor in the subject Methodology of Social Research II (qualitative) of the Bachelor in Sociology of the Faculty of Humanities and Educational Sciences of the UNLP and postgraduate teacher on methodological and labour issues in national public universities (UNLP, UNER, UNTREF).

María Eugenia Ambort, CIMECS-IdIHCS, UNLP-CONICET

María Eugenia holds a PhD in Social Sciences from the University of Buenos Aires. She also holds a Master's degree in Agrarian Social Studies (FLACSO-Argentina), and a BA in Sociology from the National University of La Plata. She is currently a postdoctoral fellow at CONICET, based at the Instituto de Investigaciones en Humanidades y Ciencias Sociales (IdIHCS) of the UNLP. Her research interests combine different disciplinary fields, such as gender studies, migration studies and agrarian social studies. She has worked with qualitative methodologies, mainly biographical methods (trajectories, life histories) and ethnography, incorporating the perspectives of intersectionality, decoloniality and feminist methodologies. In her recent work she has studied the processes of social mobility and gender relations in horticulture in La Plata. She has carried out pre-doctoral research stays in Spain (Universidade da Coruña, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona); and has participated as a guest lecturer in postgraduate seminars in several Spanish and Argentinean universities (UAB, UDC, Universidad de Murcia) and Argentinean universities (UNLP, Universidad Nacional de Misiones, Universidad Nacional de Jujuy).

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Published

2026-05-08

Issue

Vol. 16 (2026): Publicação Contínua

Section

Dossier 1: Working in the contemporary world: emerging experiences, practices and representations (Edited by Aline Pires, Maurício Rombaldi and Jaime Santos Júnior)

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