Aspirational Elitism As a Suburban Lifestyle

In Argentina, as in other Latin American countries, metropolitan expansion is reshaping the urban landscape, pushing into what scholars describe as new peripheries. Middle and high classes are central actors demanding as well as producing new, secure (and securitized), well connected urban spaces in the fringes of the metropolitan borders. These new inhabitants tend to follow residential strategies based on gated communities (GC) as the main residential choice. In Argentina, this phenomenon is referred to as elite suburbanization: high income families leave the central city to the new peripheries in the pursuit of a suburban familiar lifestyle, with privatized strategies for schooling, health, housing and security. These families do their groceries in supermarkets located in shopping centers, children are taken to school in family cars, and recreational activities frequently occur inside the GC.

Urban Latin American scholars often refer to the GC as enclaves and to the new peripheries as insular cities, fragmented and segregated. However, few have studied in particular how these residents inhabit the urban space, how they relate among them and with others, how they understand their residential and mobility strategies, and specifically, why they move to such places. Based on evidence from observations and biographical interviews from the doctoral project fieldwork held in two Argentine metropolitan areas, this presentation focuses on the concept of aspirational elitism as a way of understanding the urban life of residents of GC and the new urban developments. Evidence shows that many GC inhabitants are not part of the elite or high class but share distinctive practices, survival strategies, and urban narratives. These narratives are often shaped by an aspirational comparison to a socially constructed image of real elites, which serves as a point of reference in their daily lives.