Experiences, sensations and demands of citizen (in)security: recent complex configurations in Argentina

Over the last decades the issue of insecurity due to an increase in crime rates and its possible impact on the stability of Latin American democracies has sparked an ongoing debate. In this context, the present article studies, for the case of Argentina, how experiences and sensations of insecurity may be articulated to demands for greater punitive rigor. The analysis is based on two types of information. Initially, data from international surveys such as Latinoabarometer are considered. Then, these are compared to data from prolonged on-site observations in a poor neighborhood of a mid-sized Argentine city. The combination of these different types of data shows the complexity of the process. Contrary to what is often assumed, experiences and sensations of insecurity do not lineally lead to demands for greater punitive rigor. The way in which social actors elaborate their experiences of insecurity is highly situational and not systematic. We have found that there is not necessarily a consistent process of ‘meaning construction’ that articulates experiences and sensations of insecurity with political demands.

La Nueva Era : mercado y crisis de sentido. Estudio exploratorio realizado en Bogotá

Es una investigación pionera que pretende comprender el desarrollo del fenómeno social Nueva Era en Bogotá, por ello el objetivo de este estudio es indagar sobre los motivos que tiene los bogotanos para consumir productos y servicios de la Nueva Era. A partir de una metodología de investigación cualitativa donde se utilizaron técnicas de recolección tales como: la entrevista semi-estructurada, el cuestionario y la observación participante donde las unidades de análisis fueron los propietarios y consumidores de tres centros calificados Nueva Era que fueron, Serviteca del Alma, Centro Unifinismo, Wahikarie de Colombia E.U, se logro corroborar la hipótesis que el capitalismo informacional con su economía de mercado y la globalización que han generado una sociedad de red, ha desatado una crisis de sentido en los individuos, el llamado mercado “Nueva Era” es una alternativa para resolver dicha problemática.