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B I The Social Emergency Law recognizes popular economy workers as workers. These "workers in the popular economy" are becoming an increasingly important group in terms of size alongside the prevailing two sectors of employed workers: registered formal employees and unregistered, informal workers (or "undeclared employment"). While this is not unique to popular economy workers, it is important to point out that they are not waged workers, making them powerless to modify this situation in the absence of an employer and a collective bargaining process to guarantee an increase in their income. Keywords: popular economy; labor market; universal basic wage; poverty; social security EN popular economy labor market universal basic wage poverty social security 64 72 9 06/07/23 20230501 NES 230501 Graph: Annual march by popular economy organizations in Argentina, on August 7, the day of San Cayetano, patron of bread and work, demanding "Peace, Bread, Land, Roof, and Work."Movimiento de Trabajadores Excluidos, facebook.com/mteargentina Latin America is a region where high levels of inequality exist in many countries. [Extracted from the article]

Drawing on ethnographic data collected in three informal communities, one in Argentina, one in México, and one in Ecuador, we address the long-standing question posed by Larissa Lomnitz's and Carol Stack's now-classic studies of how impoverished people not only survive but what strategies they adopt in an attempt to build a dignified life. By focusing on the diversity of strategies by which the urban poor solve the everyday problems of individual and collective reproduction, we move beyond the macro-level analysis of structural constraint and material deprivation. Our findings show a remarkable continuity in the difficulties residents of these informal communities confronted and the problem-solving strategies they resorted to. We found that networks of kin and friends continue to play a crucial role in how poor people not only survive but attempt to get ahead. Additionally, we highlight the role of patronage networks and collective action as central to strategies by which the urban poor cope with scarcity and improve their life chances, while also paying close attention to ways in which they deal with pressing issues of insecurity and violence. The paper shows that poor people's survival strategies are deeply imbricated in routine political processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Importance: Despite extensive knowledge of hypertension treatment, the prevalence of uncontrolled hypertension is high and increasing in low- and middle-income countries.Objective: To test whether a community health worker-led multicomponent intervention would improve blood pressure (BP) control among low-income patients with hypertension.Design, Setting, and Participants: A cluster randomized trial was conducted in 18 centers for primary health care within a national public system providing free medications and health care to uninsured patients in Argentina. A total of 1432 low-income adult patients with uncontrolled hypertension were recruited between June 2013 and April 2015 and followed up to October 2016.Interventions: Nine centers (743 patients) were randomized to the multicomponent intervention, which included a community health worker-led home intervention (health coaching, home BP monitoring, and BP audit and feedback), a physician intervention, and a text-messaging intervention over 18 months. Nine centers (689 patients) were randomized to usual care.Main Outcomes and Measures: The coprimary outcomes were the differences in systolic and diastolic BP changes from baseline to the end of follow-up of patients with hypertension. Secondary outcomes included the proportion of patients with controlled hypertension (BP <140/90 mm Hg). Three BP measurements were obtained at each of 2 baseline and 2 termination visits using a standard protocol, the means of which were used for analyses.Results: Of 1432 participants (mean age, 55.8 years [SD, 13.3]; 772 women [53.0%]), 1357 (94.8%) completed the trial. Baseline mean systolic BP was 151.7 mm Hg for the intervention group and 149.8 mm Hg for the usual care group; the mean diastolic BP was 92.2 mm Hg for the intervention group and 90.1 mm Hg for the usual care group. Systolic BP reduction from baseline to month 18 was 19.3 mm Hg (95% CI, 17.9-20.8 mm Hg) for the intervention group and 12.7 mm Hg (95% CI, 11.3-14.2 mm Hg) for the usual care group; the difference in the reduction was 6.6 mm Hg (95% CI, 4.6-8.6; P < .001). Diastolic BP decreased by 12.2 mm Hg (95% CI, 11.2-13.2 mm Hg) in the intervention group and 6.9 mm Hg (95% CI, 5.9-7.8 mm Hg) in the control group; the difference in the reduction was 5.4 mm Hg (95% CI, 4.0-6.8 mm Hg; P < .001). The proportion of patients with controlled hypertension increased from 17.0% at baseline to 72.9% at 18 months in the intervention group and from 17.6% to 52.2% in the usual care group; the difference in the increase was 20.6% (95% CI, 15.4%-25.9%; P < .001). No adverse events were reported.Conclusions and Relevance: Low-income patients in Argentina with uncontrolled hypertension who participated in a community health worker-led multicomponent intervention experienced a greater decrease in systolic and diastolic BP than did patients who received usual care over 18 months. Further research is needed to assess generalizability and cost-effectiveness of this intervention and to understand which components may have contributed most to the outcome.Trial Registration: clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT01834131. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the effect of a job training program for low-income youth in Cordoba, Argentina. The program included life-skills and vocational training, as well as internships with private sector employers. Participants were allocated by means of a public lottery. We rely on administrative data on formal employment, employment spells, and earnings, to establish the effects of the program in the short term (18 months), but also-exceptionally for programs of this type in Latin America and in developing countries in general-in the medium term (33 months) and in the long term (48 months). The results indicate sizable gains of about 8 percentage points in formal employment in the short term (about 32% higher than the control group), although these effects dissipate in the medium and in the long term. Contrary to previous results for similar programs in the region, the effects are substantially larger for men, although they also seem to fade in the long run. Program participants also exhibit earnings about 40% higher than those in the control group, and an analysis of bounds indicates that these gains result from both higher employment levels and higher wages. The detailed administrative records also allow us to shed some light on the possible mechanisms underlying these effects. A dynamic analysis of employment transitions indicates that the program operated through an increase in the persistence of employment rather than from more frequent entries into employment. The earnings effect and the higher persistence of employment suggest that the program was successful in increasing the human capital of participants, although the transient nature of these results may also reflect better matches from a program-induced increase in informal contacts or formal intermediation. ( JEL J08, J24, J68, O15) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the actions that millions of new-poor Argentine citizens took when confronted with impoverishment during the country's economic crisis in 2002. Drawing on World Bank and Latinobarómetro survey data, it explores how their distinct understandings of citizenship; their possession of human, social, physical, cultural, and financial capital; and aspects of their middle-class identity shaped the very specific forms of resistance that they adopted compared to the structural poor. It provides insights into why some citizens perceived their hardship as a political problem, formed collective grievances, and manifested their resistance through protest, while others located the causes of hardship in their own deficiencies and tended to confine their responses to individual self-improvement strategies. It also finds that differences in personal biographies, experiences of poverty, and the changing spaces available to protest influenced individuals' choice of action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Use of natural geological materials for arsenic (As) removal is an emerging solution at a household level for poor people in remote rural settlements, especially when the materials are locally available and can be collected by the local population. Their low or zero cost makes these materials very attractive compared with synthetic or commercial materials. Sometimes, this may be the only option to provide safe water to very poor settlements. Their suitability for As removal from water is mainly due to adsorption, co-precipitation and ion exchange processes involving Fe- and Al-rich minerals and clay minerals present in the soils or sediments. In the present study, various clay-rich soils from the Santiago del Estero province (SDE, NW Argentina) and, for comparison, a laterite from the Misiones province have been tested as adsorbents for As in shallow naturally contaminated groundwaters of the Río Dulce alluvial aquifer in SDE. Batch adsorption experiments showed higher As(V) removal for the Misiones laterite sample (99 %) as compared with the soils from SDE (40–53 %), which can be related to lower contents of water-soluble and oxalate extractable Al and Fe in the last samples. These results suggest the application of the Misiones laterite soil as an alternative for As removal. However, high transportation costs from Misiones to SDE can be an economical restriction for the low-income population of SDE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To describe the functional state, socio-economic status, and environmental situation of a very poor elderly (older than 65 years old) population in Argentina, and its relationship with their autonomy. Methods: This was a descriptive and prospective study , the applied instrument was the Spanish Red Cross Scales. The above mentioned evaluation was completed by applying a second instrument for social evaluation described by Marin et al in Chile in 1994. Besides, other general information was collected from the studied population such as: environmental, family, and social conditions. A group of inhabitants of a shanty town was evaluated. Statistical analysis was based on Chi- square test, while Student t test or non parametrics one were applied on the data depending on their distribution. Results: A sample of 219 people, with a mean value age of 69 ± 6 years old, was functionally evaluated using the Spanish Red Cross Scale, being the obtained data classified by age (less or older than 75 years old), education, income, and gender. There was no statistical difference between both age groups in any scale value (p=NS, ANOVA-Bonferroni). Conclusion: No significant difference was found in the functional state, capability for performing daily life activities, cognitive state among the studied people depending on their age, gender, educational level and economic income. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Argentina, cartoneros are poor people who collect and sell paper products and other recyclables in order to survive. The appearance of cartoneros in high profile urban public spaces in search of recyclables has been one of the most visible and lasting effects of the 2001–2002 economic crisis of Argentina. This essay examines the origins of cartoneros in Buenos Aires and Gran Buenos Aires, their relationship with the state, and the formalization of their gathering activities by the authorities and the recycling industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We begin this paper by reviewing some recent transformations in governance. We then propose three new concepts that we believe assist us in coming to terms with these transformations and the political statuses that have emerged as part of them. These concepts are ‘nodal governance’, ‘denizens’, and ‘communal space’. Following this we will explore the normative implications of nodal governance as it has taken shape to date, with an emphasis on the ‘governance disparity’ that is paralleling the ‘wealth disparity’ across the globe. In response to this disparity, we will end with an outline of a normative vision and practical programme aimed at deepening democracy in poor areas of South Africa, Argentina, and elsewhere. We will argue that the main virtue of nodal governance, namely, the emphasis on local capacity and knowledge can be retrieved, reaffirmed, and reinstitutionalized in ways that enhance the self-direction of poor communities while strengthening their ‘collective capital’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on ethnographic fieldwork in a shantytown in the outskirts of Buenos Aires, this article studies the workings of Peronist "political clientelism" among the urban poor. It analyzes the web of relations that some slum-dwellers establish with local political brokers to obtain medicine, food, and solutions to other everyday concerns. The article also explores the main functions of the "problem-solving networks," which are resource control and information hoarding, and pays particular attention to an underexplored dimension of the operation of clientelism: clients' own views on the network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]