From Rural Migrant to Urban Citizen: A Brief Social History of the Development of an Urban Poor Suburb in Mexico
Author(s)
Mahar, Cheleen
Abstract
This paper provides a brief social history of the field of politics which framed the creation and structure of a Colonia Popular in Oaxaca, Mexico. The methodology investigates the relational processes of individual and group dispositions with the objective structures of urban Oaxacan society through the notions of capital, habitus and field. The paper argues that the logic of colonial identity changed from one primarily bounded by residents’ notions of symbolic and cultural capital and need for basic amenities to one merged into city interests and a logic based upon economic capital. This transformation occurred in parallel to changes in residents’ personal lifestyles and calculations for their individual futures.
