Globalization landscapes of poor suburbia: women, institutions and identities in local spaces

Abstract

There are currently some features common to big cities than can be related to globalization. In these cities it is possible to detect some peculiar geographical configurations that are not visible, or remain hidden for the current hegemonic collective imaginary. These landscapes ?that evince the social, economic, political and cultural effects of globalization? are inhabited by human groups that have developed alternative ways of survival and are affected by tensions and conflict but that also present opportunities and various potentialities. These groups have built their identities in the day-to-day interaction with their bodies, homes, and physical and social environments. This study intends to reflect on those interactions and on the construction of women?s autonomy in local spaces in the context of globalization.

Two main issues are analyzed: the demands women make as a result of their awareness (or lack of awareness) of their own rights as citizens, and the institutional answers to those demands given by local organizations.

The impact of globalization on local spaces increased the vulnerability of the already fragile life conditions of their inhabitants.

From a gender point of view, the impact of globalization can be detected in the workplace and the domestic and institutional environments of women.

Health care institutions reproduce the hegemonic vertical and patriarchal model.Somealternative ways of resisting these models have appeared, mediated by women who have set up networks that attempt to answer social problems and demands by coordinating actions between institutions, and thus acting in an organized manner as agents of society in its relationship with the state.