<em>Rebuscadores</em>: Indignation about the Legal Misrecognition of the Most Vulnerable Segment of the Working Poor in Bogotá

<p>This paper will argue that a good way to misrecognize and deny basic social benefits to those most in need is to inscribe them in broad categories that they do not identify with, that do not allow others to have a clear image of who they are, and that do not give them a place in the overall...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Laura Porras
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Oñati International Institute for the Sociology of Law 2015-03-01
Series:Oñati Socio-Legal Series
Subjects:
Online Access:http://ssrn.com/abstract=2567262
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Summary:<p>This paper will argue that a good way to misrecognize and deny basic social benefits to those most in need is to inscribe them in broad categories that they do not identify with, that do not allow others to have a clear image of who they are, and that do not give them a place in the overall social space. I suggest that we can group Bogot&aacute;&rsquo;s most vulnerable workers under the name rebuscadores which is distinctive in class terms. Re-buscador is a made-up word in Spanish which suggests that someone is looking all the time for something, in this case, for a way to make a living and survive. If those workers become visible and gain legal recognition (as the proletariat once did) it will be easier to procure legal protection for them, which is one of the ways to fight against longstanding socio-economic inequalities.</p> <hr /><p>En el art&iacute;culo se argumenta que una manera de invisibilizar jur&iacute;dicamente a grupos sociales marginados es inscribi&eacute;ndolos en categor&iacute;as anal&iacute;ticas demasiado amplias, que impide a otros grupos identificarlos como tales y que ellos se auto-identifiquen colectivamente en el escenario social. Para ilustrar su argumento, la autora toma el caso de los trabajadores m&aacute;s precarizados de Bogot&aacute;, critica las categor&iacute;as de &ldquo;trabajo informal&rdquo; y &ldquo;econom&iacute;a popular&rdquo; en las que se les incluye habitualmente, y propone agruparlos, no bajo una categor&iacute;a impuesta por la distancia acad&eacute;mica, sino bajo el nombre con el que ellos mismos se denominan: rebuscadores. En Colombia se conoce como re-buscador a una persona que est&aacute; todo el tiempo en b&uacute;squeda de algo, en este caso una forma de generar ingresos y sobrevivir. El argumento central es que si se logra visibilizar a dichos trabajadores (como ocurri&oacute; en el pasado con el proletariado), ser&aacute; m&aacute;s sencillo procurarles protecci&oacute;n legal, que es una de las formas de combatir las desigualdades socioecon&oacute;micas de largo alcance.</p><p><strong>DOWNLOAD THIS PAPER FROM SSRN</strong>: <a href="http://ssrn.com/abstract=2567262 " target="_blank">http://ssrn.com/abstract=2567262 </a></p>
ISSN:2079-5971