La construcción del valor en torno a la asistencia alimentaria. La experiencia del comedor comunitario «Mujeres ladrilleras organizadas» en territorios de segregación periurbana

Abstract

The article addresses the human capacity to generate value from the ethnographic study of a case: the creation of a community kitchen (CC) in a peri-urban sector of the city of XXX (Entre Ríos, Argentina), in the context of the Covid pandemic -19. The case was selected due to the importance present in a collaborative trajectory prior to the management of the CC. For this study, David Graeber’s (2018) concept of value was taken as a reference framework, who states that this does not lie in the thing, but in the creative action that carries it out. To this end, a qualitative methodology was chosen, whose field work was carried out during the period 2022-2023 through participant observation, group interviews, spontaneous conversations, documentary analysis and photographic recording. From the analysis of the built material, the following results are recorded: the value as the transformation of food into food benefits intended for a population in contexts of persistent poverty; the value of recognition as prestige and legitimacy assigned by the residents of the “Los Hornos” neighborhood and by other social organizations and the value of the collective action of the group of women who acquired skills and discovered political potential in the management of the CC.