MEVIR, rural life and communities

An ethnographic approach

Abstract

This article presents the results of an ethnographic research carried out in Pueblo Gallinal (Paysandú, Uruguay). Its aim was to understand the links between young and adult generations, in relation to contextual and historical aspects as the sources of work and the type of housing, in this case built through public policy of MEVIR. Field work was extended for one year, between 2014 and 2015 involving participant observation, in depth interviews, review of sources and informal conversations with local people. The text concludes that housing policies build a specific type of social space that affects the ways young and adults live together, but this ways of being together is crossed by power relations and intergenerational modes of inequality that place young people in a subordinate position. This article seeks to promote the dialogue between anthropological and architectural knowledge, placing in focus the senses and social relations produced in a specific scenario.