Abstract

CASTILLO, Mayarí. Symbolic boundaries and middle clases. Social mobility in Chile. Perf. latinoam. [online]. 2016, vol.24, n.48, pp.213-241. ISSN 0188-7653.  https://doi.org/10.18504/pl2448-009-2016.

After more than three decades of the implementation of the policies of structural adjustment in Chile, the middle classes increased their weight in the social structure and changed their economic sector, occupation and trajectories of social mobility. This article analyzes the perception of symbolic boundaries, which emerging of these macro-processes and shapes the subjectivity of middle class subjects into upward mobility processes and modifies their perceptions of inequality. Whit this objective the paper presents a qualitative analysis of cases in which discursive components like meritocracy, the effort and the idea of "barriers/obstacles" became a key discursive axis. This article is inscribed within the recent studies on middle classes for the Chilean case, which focus specially on the cultural aspects after reproduction of stratification and inequality in Chile.

Keywords : Middle classes; upward social mobility; inequality; qualitative methodology; discourses; symbolic boundaries; Chile.

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