LIFE PATH TACTICS: WOMEN'S AGENCY FACING PRECARIOUSNESS

Abstract

This article aims to show the situation resulting from the processes that job insecurity has caused in the daily practices of some families belonging to the popular sector and inhabitants of the city of Puebla, Mexico. The concept of precarization within the political economy of neoliberalism is taken as a scenario, which is the economic, political and social structure of the current regime of capital accumulation and, as such, influences the lives of these families, specifically and in a manner particular that women experience. The way in which some women in this sector transform their practices and daily life - through their agency - is examined due to precariousness, by implementing what Michel De Certeau (2007) called “tactics”. It has become clear the progressive and constant economic deterioration of women within this regime, as well as a marked flexibility in working conditions that, together, generate profound changes in the way of life of the inhabitants of Mexico. Two career paths are presented, that of Cinda and Ross, which reflect the use of their agency, through tactics, to survive under a continuous process of precariousness with limited possibilities of transforming their living conditions.