Neighborhood cultural centers in Barrio de La Estación of Tandil. Memory and networks in the production of the Public in a middle-ranged city

Abstract

The aim of this article is to share some reflections based on an ongoing research concerning neighorhood cultural centers managed by civil society organizations in a middle-ranged city of Buenos Aires province.

From an athropological perspective and with ethnographic metodology, the research inquires into the joints between socio-historical processes, cultural practices and modes of collectivization and politicization which crystallize in these spaces. The article delves into the case of a cultural center that hosts a variety of activities at the time that has been the home to various social collectives that seek to influence the city public agenda demanding and monitoring specific public policies.

There are analyzed, on one hand, critical interventions on the collective memory that aim to interpelate hegemonic narratives both at a local level and with reference to broader contexts, and on the other hand, the articulations of collective demands and constructions of senses of the public which are invoked in the current tensions on the production and collective consumption of the city.