Full Description
The sufferings of "ordinary" people under harsh economic conditions can eventually lead to the fall of governments. Given this fact, it becomes important to know how "ordinary" people live-what privations they suffer and what strategies they use to survive in times of economic crisis. The Mexican Urban Household provides this information for Mexico near the end of the twentieth century.
Mexico is now a predominantly urban nation, and this study is the definitive work on the strategies of self-defense of its urban households. It is based on surveys of nearly 10,000 households, conducted during twenty years of field work in five very different cities, with the help of a staff of more than twenty Mexican social scientists, engineers, architects, and social workers.
Far from being a compilation of undigested statistics, however, The Mexican Urban Household uses its rich data to vividly reveal how Mexican families use their every resource to defend themselves against a political and economic system that overwhelms and exploits them. It describes how families band together, sometimes with three generations in one small house, to minimize expenses and pool resources. It explores the limited range of available jobs, from secure but scarce bureaucratic positions to more common and less reliable jobs in blue-collar industries and the informal economy. And, most important, it traces the high cost to families, particularly to women, of the endless struggle to make ends meet.
These important findings outline the dimensions of the economic crisis for ordinary Mexicans. It will be crucial reading not only for everyone interested in the future of Mexico but also for students of development throughout the Third World.
Contents
Preface
Part One. The Setting, the Study, and the Cities
1. The Setting and the Study
2. Cities of the Study
Part Two. The Mexican Urban Household
3. Households, Strategies, and the Economic System
4. The Mexican Urban Household
5. Household Dynamics and Economic Survival
Part Three. The Household Economy
6. Workers, Jobs, and Salaries in Urban Mexico
7. Household Income and Economic Welfare
8. Household Budgeting Strategies
9. The Economic Crisis and the New Adaptation
Appendixes
1. Study Methods
2. Supplementary Tables and Figures for Chapter 6
3. General Statistics on Mexican Households
Notes
Bibliography
Index
