From The Resources of Poverty To The Poverty of Resources?: The Erosion of A Survival Model

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From the Resources of Poverty to the Poverty of Resources?: The Erosion of a

Survival Model
Article in Latin American Perspectives · July 2001

DOI: 10.1177/0094582X0102800405
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From the Resources of Poverty
to the Poverty of Resources?
The Erosionof a SurvivalModel
by
Mercedes Gonzalezde la Rocha
Household-focusedresearchhas madecrucialconceptualcontributionsto
the ways in which scholarsunderstandthe survivalof the urbanpoor.Rich in
new data and ideas as this wave of studies has been, gaps in our knowledge
persist. In particular,the persistenceof economic crises in the developing
world since the early 1980s has led me to wonder about the usefulness of
existing analyticaltools for the assessmentof currentsocial conditions.
One importantquestionhas to do with the limits of survivalstrategies.As
critical household-focusedresearchincreasingly concentratedon the sur-
vival strategiesemployed by the urbanpoor and workingclass, the limits of
such models were not explored.Rather,the idea thatthe poor simply worked
hard(or harder)in orderto make ends meet persistedas the ultimatetruth.
Whetheror at what point they might confrontconstraintsto theirreproduc-
tion was not asked.
In this articleI discuss the erosion of whatI have called the resources-of-
poverty model of survivalin light of the ongoing economic crisis faced by
poor households across Latin America. I argue that, because of the deep
restructuringand the resultingpersistenteconomic and social hardshipthat
have characterizedmuchof the Americasfor the past two decades, poor and
working-classurbanhouseholdshave moved towarda situationpermeated
by a "povertyof resources"thaterodes their capacity for survival.In other
words, the survival-strategiesapproachto understandingthe ways in which
urbanpoor households and poor individualsin Latin Americancities have
coped with economic hazardis no longertheoreticallyorempiricallyviable.
The capacity of households and individualsto achieve certainlevels of
income and well-being is the outcomeof complex social processes in which
labor marketopportunitiesplay an importantrole. The poor's capacity for
MercedesGonz,lez de la Rocha is a senior researcherat the WesternCenterfor Researchand
AdvancedStudiesin Social Anthropologyin Guadalajara,Mexico. She thanksherclose friends
BrigidaGarciaandOrlandinade Oliveirafor criticalcommentson an earlierversionof this text,
Sylvia ChantandHelen Safa for suggestions,support,andencouragement,andPatriciaPricefor
insights and comments and for help in the final copyeditingstage.
LATINAMERICANPERSPECTIVES,Issue 119, Vol. 28 No. 4, July 2001 72-100
? 2001LatinAmerican
Perspectives
72
Gonzilez de la Rocha/ EROSIONOF A SURVIVALMODEL 73
action very much dependson the developmentstrategiesof societies andthe

availabilityof social policies thateitherfacilitateor constrainsurvival,social
mobility,andreproduction.1 InurbanMexico, economic conditionsandlabor
market opportunitieshave deterioratedto the point where middle-class
householdshave become significantlypoorerandurbanpoorhouseholdsno
longer have real choices about how to earn their living.2 In such circum-
stances,poor householdsare simply left withoutthe abilityto earnincomes.
Withoutincomes coming from salaries, the urbanpoor's ability to turn to
self-provisioningactivities (e.g., independentwork, petty-commoditypro-
ductionfor pettysale, householdproductionfor consumption)is also eroded.
Thoughthe labormarketandincome-generatingopportunitiesarecentral
to my analysis, it is clear that shrinkingeconomic opportunityfor the poor
impactsotherdimensionsof theirlives. Recognizingthe multifacetednature
of povertymeansconsideringthat"thecapabilitiesof individualsandhouse-
holds aredeeply influencedby factorsrangingfromthe prospectsof earning
a living to the social andpsychologicaleffects of deprivationand exclusion"
(Moser, 1996: 23). I suggest thatincreasingpovertyhas seriousimplications
for the poor's capacityto maintainnetworksof social exchange (see Moser,
1996, for similar findings regardingthe erosion of social capital). Further-
more, I suggest that, as economic uncertaintycontinues, seemingly indefi-
nitely,a social andculturalcontextof radical exclusionis emergingin urban
Mexico thathas obvious negativeimplicationsfor the futureof the country
and those who live in it.
My researchis situatedin contemporaryurbanMexico with special refer-
ence to Guadalajara(Mexico's second-largestcity), which was-in the mid-
1990s-particularly characterizedby a contextof increasingunemployment
andprecariousactivities.Yet my skepticismaboutthe ongoing usefulness of
a resources-of-povertyapproachis, to some extent, applicable across the
Americas,given thatthe entirehemisphere(includingthe United States and
Canada)is undergoingprofoundeconomic and social reorganizationrooted
in a free-marketdevelopmentapproach.
HOUSEHOLD RESEARCH AND SURVIVALSTRATEGIES
To argue for a shift from the "resourcesof poverty"to the "povertyof

resources,"I draw from my own long-standingresearchinterestsin gender
andthe shiftingdynamicsof householdorganizationin the contextof chang-
ing urbanMexico. In conceptualizingandconductingthis research,my con-
cern has never been to measurepoverty.Instead,I have been investigating
what some call the need to knowhow society enablespeople to conducttheir
74 LATINAMERICANPERSPECTIVES
lives (Nussbaumand Sen, 1993). This taskinvolves thick,rich, andcomplex

descriptions-ethnography-and analysesof whatpeople do, as actorsboth
enabled and constrainedby society, in complex social settings. During my
almost two decades of researchand analysis on householdtransformation,I
have used a combinationof quantitativeand qualitativemethods and tech-
niques to focus on the changingconditionsof survivaland reproductionfor
the urbanworking poor. While "hard"data have given me profiles, trends,
and patterns,qualitativeinformationfrom case studies and life and family
histories has been especially valuable to my thinking about household
dynamics and change.
In brief,I have arguedthatcoping with povertyconditionsinvolves a mul-
tiplicity of resourcesthat men and women in households are able to put to
work. Households' capabilities,3 however (in this case of combining
resourcesand using them to achievea certainlevel and style of life), are not
staticor isolatedfromothersocial factorsbuthighly sensitiveto broadereco-
nomic change and themselves subject to variation.These insights owe a
heavydebtto criticaldiscussionson householdsandthe strategiestheirmem-
bers use to survive.
HOUSEHOLDS AND CHANGE
The link between households and the broadereconomy has been well
studied and documentedboth in Latin America and in other parts of the
world. The household has been conceptualizedas a mediatorbetween the
individual and the social and economic structure,making importantdeci-
sions-not free of conflicts and negotiations-and taking action vis-a-vis
dynamiclabormarketsandchangingsocial conditions(Garcia,Mufioz, and
Oliveira, 1982; Beneria, 1992; Beneria and Roldan, 1987; Anderson,
Bechhofer,andGershuny,1994; Gonzalezde la Rocha, 19944a).Household
research focusing on Mexico has emphasized household structure, the
domesticcycle, andpowerrelationshipsin the shapingof differenthousehold
functions (Garcia,Mufioz, and Oliveira, 1982; Garciaand Oliveira, 1994;
Selby, Murphy,and Lorenzen, 1990; Gonzalez de la Rocha, 1994a; Chant,
1991). Differentialsin the participationof household membersin the labor
marketand the achievementof variedincome levels within the household
have been linked to the differentialwell-being (or poverty) of household
membersliving underthe same roof, and these have been mattersof serious
and deep questioningand research.
Whetherseen as "a locus of competinginterests,rights, obligations and
resources"(Moore, 1994), a site of "cooperativeconflict"(Sen, 1991), or a
contradictorysocial unitin which conflictinginterestsandunequalaccess to
Gonzalez de la Rocha / EROSIONOF A SURVIVALMODEL 75
resourcescoexist (Gonzalezde la Rocha, 1994a),the householdis not a black

box. Conflicts, inequalities, and differential income distribution within
households have been the subjects of analysis (Garciaand Oliveira, 1994;
Blumberg, 1995; Chant, 1996), and this substantiveadvancehas allowed us
to see households'changingnaturevis-a-vis historicalandeconomic change
and their internaldifferentiationalong axes of age and gender (Sen, 1993).
Understandinghow the poor cope with theirpovertyhas been an impor-
tant issue in the Latin Americanliterature,startingfrom the concern that
urbanizationwouldproducebreakdownsin the culturalpatternsof those who
came to the cities, resultingin a ratherpermanent"marginality," and, during
the 1980s, focusing on the drasticimpactof the economic crisis on household
organization and household economy (Roberts, 1995). Rethinking the
resources-of-povertymodel sheds light on other importantissues, among
them the extentto which all aspectsof life areaffectedby the patternof eco-
nomic expansion in Latin American countries (Roberts, 1995; Beneria,
1992) and the effects of economic structuralchange on families and on men
and women's work. Focusing on the Mexican case, this article challenges
previousnotionsabouthouseholdstrategiesandmay contributeto ourunder-
standingof economic change and householddynamics.
THE SURVIVAL-STRATEGYAPPROACH
Survival-strategyapproachespredatecrisis-focused empiricalresearch.
The concept of family strategieswas adoptedas a way to move away from
"some uses of modernizationtheory that denied instrumentalrationalityto
pre-industrial,early industrial,and, more generally,poor people because of
theirlack of resourcesand power"(Tilly, 1987). Emphasison the agency of
the pooras a reactionagainstthe view thatsees individualsandhouseholdsas
puppetsof forces beyond theircontrolis an importantissue in the strategies
literature(e.g., Roberts, 1995; Schmink, 1984; Anderson, 1980).
The strategy-basedapproachhas receivedstrongcriticisms.Wolf (1992),
writing on gender,householddynamics,and ruralindustrializationin Java,
provides an interestingdiscussion of the analyticalmisconceptionsimplied
by the use of the idea of household strategiesin the developmentliterature.
She argues that the poor are not confrontingdecisions at all but are being
impelled by forces beyond their control (see also Selby, Murphy, and
Lorenzen, 1990). For the poor,accordingto this view, long-termplanningis
out of the question. Apartfrom this, criticism has also been leveled at the
assumptionof collective goals andcommon interests,householdunity,con-
sensus, andcooperationat the core of householddynamics.Wolf's strongest
criticism is of the "analyticalmerging"of individuals and households-
treating women and other household members as fully submergedin the

household collectivity. Others have questionedthe existence of strategies,
since decisions aremadeby some (frequentlypowerful)membersandnot by
the group (e.g., see Crow, 1989).
My researchon the way in which the urbanpoor cope with poverty and
economic crises led me to recognize their agency without ignoring intra-
household conflict, unequal relations, and gender/generationdifferences
withinhouseholds(Gonzalezde la Rocha, 1994a).Women'scontributionsto
households'reproductionhave been highlightedas crucialto survivaland as
an effective,not invisible,sourceof income,given the low wage levels offered
by capital(Cockcroft,1998). These findings,extensivelyresearchedanddis-
cussed elsewhere, form the point of departurefor the argumentpresented
here.
THE RESOURCES OF POVERTY
During periodswhen economic growthhas been paralleledby job avail-

ability and open opportunitiesfor work (albeitpoorly remunerated),house-
holds' availablemembershave gone to the marketto generateincomes for
subsistence. This is the situationthat characterizedGuadalajaraand other
Mexican cities duringthe years of economic growthbased on industrializa-
tion through import substitution4(see Chant, 1991; Beneria and Roldan,
1987; Selby, Murphy,and Lorenzen, 1990; Gonzalez de la Rocha, 1994a).
The economic model duringthatperiod(roughly1940-1970s) was an "inclu-
sive" one. According to Escobar(1994), the Latin Americaneconomic and
social orderof the time was closely articulatedandcapableof integratingall
economic and social actors into a single structure.It was an exploitative
social orderbutan inclusiveone.5Growthwas achievedthroughthe produc-
tion of commoditiesfor internalmarkets.Employmentincreased,and so did
the purchasingpower of the middleclass and,to a lesser extent, the working
classes. In most of LatinAmerica,povertydiminishedconsiderably,6andfor-
mal and informalactivitieswere interrelatedthroughsubcontractingchains
or puttingout work (Beneriaand Roldan, 1987).
The resources-of-povertymodel alludes both to the diversityof income
sources and to the social organizationof households or the social base that
makes survivalpossible. It was developedon the basis of researchI carried
out in Guadalajara,Mexico, during 1981 and 1982, immediatelybefore the
economic crisis (Gonzalez de la Rocha, 1994a). Although it was meant to
describeandto explainthe survivalof the urbanpoorin a particularMexican
city, research conducted by scholars in other Mexican cities and in other
urbanLatinAmericancontextsrevealedmany similaritiesto the situationit

described (e.g., see Chant, 1991; Feijo6, 1991; Pastore, Zilberstajn,and
Pagotto, 1983; Barrig, 1993). In this situation,the household acted as the
social unitin chargeof the reproductionof the laborforce andof the survival
of its membersin spite of low wages. Householdmembersmanagedto cope
with scarcity throughsocial mechanismsthat included the participationof
more than one household memberand the combinationof diverse income
sources and a multiplicityof remuneratedoccupations.
DIVERSITYOF INCOMESOURCESAND
MULTIPLICITY OF INCOMEEARNERS
Incomederivedfromwages obtainedin the formalandinformalsectorsof

the labormarketconstitutedan important-though not the only-source for
nourishinghousehold economies. While men were the main wage earners,
women also acted as importantgeneratorsof wages. Women'sparticipation
in the labormarketdependedon theirhouseholds'social structureand stage
in the domestic cycle. Extendedhouseholdswith severaladultwomen were
more conducive to female participationin the labor market(Chant, 1991).
Womentendedto be involvedin wagedactivitiesin the expansionstage of the
domestic cycle, while young members(sons anddaughters)were especially
importantfor income generationduringlaterstages. Althoughmany young
householdsadopteda traditionaldivision of laborwith only one wage earner
(male), most householdsin laterstages of the domesticcycle had at least two
membersfully participatingin the labormarket.It was commonto find, how-
ever,thatyoung housewivesworkedduringperiodsthatcould be considered
emergencies(such as a periodof illness of one of the main providers),while
other women, frequentlythose living in extendedhouseholds, workedon a
more regularbasis.
Household economies relied heavily on income sources such as petty
commodity productionand petty trade.The role of women was especially
importanthere.Womenwho baked,cooked,andsewed for sale were foundin
almostall households.Men also participatedin petty commodityproduction
but in differentareas,such as carpentry,bricklaying,and plumbing.
Domestic productionof goods and services for household consumption
was also an importantsource of householdwell-being. This work was per-
formed mainly by women. It included daily activities such as cooking,
clothes washing and ironing,housecleaning,sewing, and housing construc-
tion. Women'sdays were long, especially when they were also workingfor a
wage; productiveactivities did not relieve them of their domestic chores.
Women played a centralrole in the daily and generationalproductionand
reproductionof laborpower,withoutwhich nothingelse could be produced

(Cockcroft, 1998).
Income and assets coming from social exchange throughnetworksand
supportsystems provedto be crucialfor the survivalof urbanworking-poor
households. Networking included both men and women, but interesting
"socialterritories"could be tracedas following men and women's networks,
accordingto theirmainactivitiesandthe social arenaswherethey spenttheir
working and social time. Social exchange-the flow of goods and services
within networks of friends, neighbors, workmates, and relatives-was
importantin helpinglow-incomehouseholdsto meet socially set standardsof
living. Lomnitz(1977) arguedthatsocial networkswere the key to survival.
Networkswere centralto people's lives bothwhen social exchangewas pres-
ent andwhen it was absent.My researchin Guadalajarashowedthatthepoor-
est of the poor households were socially isolated (Gonzalez de la Rocha,
1994a).
MULTIPLICITY OF OCCUPATIONS
Urbanhouseholdsreliedfor theirsurvivalprimarilyon wages obtainedin

the market.Survivalwas generallyachievednot by only one wage but by a
collective income-generatingstrategy.In the resources-of-povertymodel
households were not homogeneousin occupationalterms, and it was com-
mon to find differenttypes of workerswithin particularhouseholds.Even a
single workercould participatein differentoccupationalniches of the labor
marketnot only in the course of a lifetime but also duringthe workingday.
Occupationalheterogeneitywas a way of compensatingfor the temporary
unemploymentof some members.This collective income-generatingstrat-
egy cushionedthe impactof temporarycrisis (e.g., the lack of employmentof
a memberor a period of illness or death of a working member).Although
mostly adultmen were in chargeof income-generatingactivities,the major-
ity of households had to have at least one othermember-an adult woman
duringthe first stage of the domestic cycle and a son or daughterduringthe
consolidationstage-as an active participantin such activities.
Occupationalheterogeneitywas the inevitableresultof low wages andthe
need to combine severalincomes to ensuresurvival,butit was a viable strat-
egy. Householdsthathadsufficientresources(i.e., an availablelaborforce) to
take advantageof labormarketopportunities(typically the larger,extended
householdsandthose in the consolidationstage of the domesticcycle) could
use theirresourcesto get moreincomes andlargercontributionsto the house-
hold budget.Occupationalheterogeneitywithin householdswas thoughtto
halt working-class differentiation,since formal-sectorworkers lived with
Gonzalez de la Rocha/ EROSIONOF A SURVIVALMODEL 79
street vendors, informal laborers, artisans, domestic employees, and the

self-employed.Householdsacted as meltingpots in which differenttypes of
workersshared-not withoutconflict-the same roof.
IMPLICATIONS OF THE MODEL
Householdsurvivaland reproductionwere achievedthrougha combina-

tion of elements of which the collaborationof the collective unit was an
importantingredient,with significantandsometimescrucialparticipationby
otherthanprimarybreadwinners.Importantas it was, women'sparticipation
in income-generatingactivitieswas atbestparallelto men's,andexcept in the
case of some female-headed households, there was no concept of the
feminizationof household economies. Recognizing the importanceof col-
lective collaborationdoes not, however, mean overlooking inequality and
unevenrelationships,unevendistributionof resources,andconflict between
individualinterestsandcollective ones. As I have argued(see also Gonzalez
de la Rocha, 1994a;Gonzalezde la Rocha,Escobar,andMartinez,1990), the
household is a highly contradictorysocial unit that is characterizedby the
coexistence of solidarityandthe confrontationof individualversuscollective
interests,gender and age conflicts, and violence. My approachsees house-
holds as social settings in which daily confrontationsand negotiationsare
developed in a context of internalinequalityand differentialdistributionof
burdensandrewards.In this way,povertyis thoughtof as a phenomenonthat
differentlyaffects women, men, children,and adults.Takingthe roof off of
the householdin orderto observe its internaldifferencesand dynamicswas
useful for detectingthe poorestof the poor within households.
This approachalso led me to analyze households in a diachronic and
processualway, andthis in turnallowedme to discoverdifferentstages of the
domesticcycle thatwere moreconduciveto povertythanothersandto begin
to think about poverty as a dynamic phenomenon. The better-off work-
ing-class householdswere the extendedandusuallylargerones and those in
the maturestagesof the domesticcycle. In contrast,the worse-offhouseholds
were frequentlynuclear,smaller,andeitheryounger(in the expansionstage)
or composed mostly of elderly people. The role of providerschanges with
each stage, as does the natureof the householdeconomy.The morecomfort-
able situationthat more maturehouseholdsenjoyed (duringthe consolida-
tion or equilibriumstage) was achievedmainly throughthe contributionsof
grown-upchildren.
Life was not easy, particularlyfor women andyoung children,at the time
when I constructedtheresources-of-poverty model.Womenborea heavybur-
den when the household lacked sufficient membersfor income-generating
activitiesor the mainprovider(s)failedto act as such becauseof illness, aban-

donment,excessive alcoholconsumption,ordeath.I saw the worriesof many
women who had to leave theirsmall childrenon theirown, locked in, while
they went out to work.Childrenwere especially vulnerableto extremepov-
erty, and suffering was a daily ingredientin the lives of poor households.
Womenhad to endurea tripleburdenas careproviders,waged workers,and
participants in collective activities in their neighborhoods for the
provisioningof services. Domestic chores were especially hardto carryout
wherethe lack of water,sewage, andotherservices madethemnot only time-
consumingbut also energy-consuming.The importantdistinction,however,
is the availabilityof jobs. Men and women could-with variousdegrees of
difficulty-find jobs. Grown-upchildren (around 15 years old) were also
expectedto starttheirworkingcareers,andalthoughtheirearlyentranceinto
the labormarketmeanta haltin theireducationaltraining,theircontributions
to the householdeconomies werehighly valuedby theirparentsandsiblings.
Unemploymentwas very low, and I did not hear anyone saying, as people
commonly do nowadays,"Thereare no jobs," "Thereis no work."Individ-
uals could opt for informal-and formal-sector work. Labormarketspe-
cialists arguedthat informalactivities were an attractiveoption, and wages
coming from this sector were not necessarilylower than those obtained in
formal occupations (e.g., see Escobar, 1986). And, of course, there were
householdsthatwere failing, householdsin which undernourishedchildren
were going blind.
STRUCTURES IN TRANSITION
One of the most interesting developments in the field of household

researchhas been the study of householdtransformationsin the context of
economic change.Structuraladjustmenthasproduceddeep social restructur-
ing at variouslevels of society and certainlyat the householdlevel. Indeed,
the linkages between change at the macrolevel of nationaleconomic policy
andchangeat the microlevel of householdorganizationhighlightthe useful-
ness of a political economic approach.
Empirical analyses of the survival strategiesof Latin America's urban
poorflourishedduringthe 1980s. These studiesmainlyappearedas a critical
reactionto prevailingtheoriesconcerningthe poorandas a meansto provide
assessmentsof the way ordinarypeople lived in spite of the greateconomic
adversityof those years. This researchhas shown thaturbanhouseholds in
Mexico, as in manyotherLatinAmericancountries,havegone througha pro-
cess of restructuringand adjustmentas the largereconomy has experienced
structuralchanges (e.g., see Beneria, 1992; Escobar and Gonzalez de la

Rocha, 1995; Gonzalez de la Rocha, 1994a; Cravey, 1997; Chant, 1991;
1996; Garciaand Oliveira, 1994).
These studieshave madeit clearthatthe poor were deeply integratedinto
the social and economic structureas low-waged workers. The concept of
"the workingpoor"was developedto assess the relationshipof povertyand
economic participation-to examinethe inherentstructuralpovertyof work-
ers in Latin American urban societies (see Horrigan and Mincy, 1994;
LevitanandShapiro,1987;McFate,Smeeding,andRainwater,1995, for the-
oreticaldiscussions;andEscobar,1986, andGonzalezde la Rocha, 1994a,on
the link between povertyin employmentin the Mexicancase). It was appar-
ent fromthese studiesthatthe survivalandreproductionof the workingpoor
could not be guaranteedon an individualbasis (because of low wages) and
thathouseholdorganizationwas a key elementin these processes (Gonzalez
de la Rocha, 1994a; Roberts, 1995). Householdrestructuringin the 1980s
includedthe increasedparticipationof householdmembersin the labormar-
ket, especially adult women who workedmainly in precariousactivities in
the informalsector,but it also includedincreasingdomestic work as house-
holds became extended and crowded and a general reorganizationof con-
sumptionpatternsand daily diets (see Gonzalez de la Rocha, 1988; 1991).
The so-called strategiesof survivalare mainly based on labor, "the poor's
greatest asset" (Moser, 1996), with an importantdose of social exchange
(through networks of social relations between neighbors, relatives, and
friends)as a crucialcushion for adversityand scarcityof materialresources
(Lomnitz, 1977; Gonzalez de la Rocha, 1994a;Moser, 1996).
ADJUSTINGTHEECONOMY
From 1982, whenthe debtcrisis exploded,to 1986, official andreal wages

declineddramatically,andthe peso was devaluatedto one-eighthof its previ-
ous dollarvalue. Capitalflight andfiscal austeritymade the economic situa-
tion insecureand fragile.Formalemploymentbeganto lose groundas infor-
mal jobs became one of the few alternatives for low-income groups.
Maquiladoras,or in-bondmanufacturingplants,increasedin importanceas a
valuablesourceof foreigncurrencybutremainedmarginalwith regardto the
percentageof the total labor force that they employed. Informalactivities
served as a cushion for workerswho could not find formaljobs. Between
1980 and 1987, informalemploymentgrew by 80 percentin absoluteterms
(CEPAL,1992) androse from24 percentto 33 percentas a proportionof the
economically active population(Escobar,1996; Roberts, 1995).
Between 1986 and 1988profoundrestructuring beganto takeplace.Wages

continuedto decline while inflationrose, reachinga peak of 159 percentin
1987 (Escobar,1996). Formerstate-ownedenterpriseswere privatized,and
social expenditurefell from7.6 percentof the gross domesticproduct(GDP)
in 1981 to 5.6 percentin 1987-1988 (CorderaandGonzalezTiburcio,1991).
AfterMexico signedtheGeneralAgreementon TariffsandTradein 1986, the
openingof local marketsto foreigngoods seriouslyimpactedlocal manufac-
turingenterprises.Many firmsclosed down. Guadalajara,the quintessential
"bigcity of small industry,"was particularlyhardhit by this new "openecon-
omy,"which broughtcheaperimportedshoes, clothing, and textiles to the
local shops and thus all but annihilatedGuadalajara'smain manufactures.
The lowering of laborcosts was an importantmeans for local enterprises
to survive underthese conditions,and both multinationaland nationalnon-
maquiladorafirms(which hadpaidhigherwages in the past) made effortsto
reducewages to level themwiththoseofferedby maquiladoras.In 1987 wages
in new plants,mainlymaquiladoras,were 60 percentlowerthanwages in the
olderones (see Carrillo,1991;Escobar,1996).In contrastto the previousera,
in which informalemploymentcoexisted with formaljobs, informalitypro-
liferatedin a generalcontext of formal-employmentdecline.
Inequalityincreasedduringthose years. Accordingto Cortes(1997), the
richest 10 percentof the populationearned55 percentmore in real termsin
1992 thanin 1977 while the realincome of othersocial groupsdeclined.The
middle class, especially the lower middle class, experienceda substantial
loss (Gonzalez de la Rocha, 1995a). For the workingclass and the poor, the
bottom 40 percentof Mexico's population,the general worseningof living
conditionsthroughoutthe 1980s constituteda veryseriouschallenge.Precar-
ious living conditions were accentuated,and the urbanpoor were seriously
affectedby realwage deterioration,incipientbutrealunemployment,andjob
scarcity.
ADJUSTING THE HOUSEHOLD
Householdresponsesto the crisis of the 1980s andthe transformationthat

households experiencedduringthe first years of economic adjustmentand
restructuringmeant the intensificationof the elements that made up the
resources-of-povertymodel. Household resources-mainly the household
laborforce-proved to be crucialfor theseresponses.Households'flexibility
andcapacityto adaptto the new economicconditionskepthouseholdincome
from falling as rapidly as individual wages. Household total income in
Guadalajarafell only 11 percentfrom 1982 to 1985, while individualwages
fell 35 percent. The household acted as a cushion to protect its individual
Gonzalez / EROSION
delaRocha OFA SURVIVAL
MODEL 83
membersfrom the impactof the economic crisis. This was mainly achieved
throughthe intensificationof work.7
This relativesuccess does not meanthatindividualsandfamilies enjoyed
heightenedwell-being.In orderto defendtheirincomes,householdmembers
had to work much harderand intensify the use of theirremainingresources
and assets, particularlythe laborof women andchildren.The intensification
of work placed a very unequalburdenon women, who, apartfrom havingto
go out to workin paid activities,saw theirdomesticchores augmentedwith-
out muchhelp fromtheirmale counterpartsin the household(Gonzalezde la
Rocha, 1988; 1991).
Researchconductedin the 1980s andearly 1990s showedthathouseholds
were experiencinga privatizationof the crisis (Beneria,1992;Gonzalezde la
Rocha, 1988; 1991). Indeed,theywere the arenasfor crucialsocial responses
to economic adjustment.Changesat the level of the Mexican urbanhouse-
hold conformedto a regularpatternacrossLatinAmericansocieties (Fortuna
andPrates,1989;Hardy,1989;OrtegaandTironi,1988;Pastore,Zilberstajn,
and Pagotto, 1983; Schkolnikand Teitelboim,1988; Gonzalez de la Rocha,
1994b; 1995b). As the economy collapsed and went throughmajoradjust-
mentsandrestructuring,householdsbecamethe scene of social restructuring
and domestic adjustment(see Gonzalez de la Rocha, 1988; 1991; 1994b).
Although nuclearhouseholds continuedto make up the majorityof all
households,the proportionof extendedhouseholdsincreased.The extension
of households was achievedmainly throughthe incorporationof additional
adultmembers.This was interpretedboth as a savings mechanism(through
sharinghousingcosts) andas a way to increasethe numberof availablemem-
bers for income-generatingactivities. Extended households, although less
numerousthannuclearhouseholds,gave shelterto a greaternumberof peo-
ple duringthose years, given theirlargersize (CEPAL,1992). Case studies
from my researchshowed that staying in the householdof origin aftermar-
riage became a more commonpractice(Gonzdlezde la Rocha, 1988; 1991;
1995b).The extendedhouseholdappearedto be a way of protectingmembers
from falling real wages and increasinginsecurity.
The decreasing value of wages affected the participationof household
members who were not consideredprimaryworkers.The most important
change in this respect was the increase in women's participationin wage-
earningactivities.The intensificationof work was accomplishedmainly by
the incorporationof adultwomen, especially marriedwomen with children
and domestic commitments,reversingthe predominanceof young, single,
andrathereducatedwomen,into the ranksof workers.Anthropologicalstud-
ies showed this (Gonzalez de la Rocha, 1988; Barrig, 1993; Moser, 1989),
and it was later confirmed by statistical analyses of national-baseddata
(GarciaandOliveira,1994). Apartfromadultwomen,young males-sons-

also increasedtheirparticipationin the labormarket.Increasingthe number
of income generatorswas mainly achieved throughinformalactivities and
self-employment,since formal-employmentopportunitiesdeclined signifi-
cantly. This was a consequence of the urgentneed to compensate for the
decreasing capacity of adult males to act as the main breadwinners.The
importanceof women and childrenas primaryincome producersincreased
duringthese years while male heads' contributionsto the household econ-
omy fell in most cases.8
Apart from increasing the numberof wage earners,urbanhouseholds
broadenedtheirincome venues to counterbalancethe fragilityof theirwage
sources.The wage-derivedproportionof totalhouseholdincomediminished,
while that of income from independentwork (mainly self-employmentand
self-provisioning) increased (CEPAL, 1991). Self-employmentincreased,
since the relativeattractionof independentwork increasedas formalwages
declined. The numberof women working in family businesses without a
wage is difficult to measure,but some studies suggest that this category of
workersgrew significantly(Escobar,1996).
The burdenof domestic chores increasedas householdscame to include
more membersand many stoppedbuying goods and services that could be
replaced by homemade equivalents (throughrecycling objects, repairing
domestic appliances, mending old clothes, eating home-cooked meals
instead of restaurantfood, and so on). This placed an increasedburdenon
women, since the transformationof householdsdid not include a gendered
redistributionof tasks within the householddivision of labor.
The importanceof being partof social exchangenetworkswas enhanced.
Collaboration,mutual help, the exchange of favors, and the daily flow of
goods and services among relatives,neighbors,and friends became funda-
mentalto the preservationof well-being.Although,as was mentionedabove,
bothmen and women participatedin flows of social exchange,women's net-
workingbecame a crucialfactorin daily life, providingsupportin child care
and household chores and crucialinformationaboutsources of income.
Household consumptionpatternswere also transformed.Some areas of
household consumption-such as clothing and entertainment-were
restricted(or eliminated)in the first instancein orderto protectbasic con-
sumptionof food. Womenfound it increasinglydifficultto buy new clothes
and shoes for childrenandfor themselvesandpreferredto mendold clothing
(or to wearrags)in orderto devotetheirmeagermoneysto staples.Basic con-
sumptionsuffered,too, andimportantmodificationsweremadeas realwages
deterioratedand employmentbecame scarce. Housewives stopped buying
meator boughtless of it in favorof carbohydratesandless expensiveproteins
Gonzfilezde la Rocha / EROSIONOF A SURVIVALMODEL 85
(e.g., eggs or organmeatsuch as liverandheart).Therewere, of course, very

dramaticcases in which more extreme consumptioncuts were made, and
deprivationwas the best way to describethis transformation.
The impact of the crisis was differential.Some householdstructuresand
domestic-cyclestages appearedmorevulnerablethanothers.Smallerhouse-
holds (frequentlynuclear)andhouseholdsin the expansionstage (frequently
small, nuclearhouseholdswith a high dependencyratio)hadlimitedcapacity
to defendtheirincomes andconsumptionpatterns.The most dramaticimpli-
cation of this findingis thatthe more vulnerablehouseholdswere also those
with morechildren,whose nutrition,health,andeducationallevels were seri-
ously threatened.
In a similarfashion, householdrestructuringdid not weigh equally upon
all household members. The accumulatedevidence suggests that women
have endureda heavy share of the social cost of restructuringand change
(Beneria, 1992). This observationsuggests that patriarchyis a durablefea-
tureof capitalism.BorrowingCockcroft'swords, "Thissuperexploitationof
women is a majorconsequenceand cause of monopoly capital's seeking to
fortifythe relationbetweenitself andvillage/orneighborhood-baseddomes-
tic economies"(1998: 42). Womenhad to workharderboth as waged work-
ers in the labor marketand as producersof goods and services within the
household,andtheirunpaidhouseholdworkmadeit "easierfor employersto
pay all workersless, while patriarchaland relatedgender ideologies make
women even more superexploitable"(1998: 43).
The case of female-headedhouseholdsis particularlyinterestingin thatit
shows that women's control over resourcesis crucial for well-being. Con-
traryto the commonidea aboutthe greaterpovertyandvulnerabilityof these
households, studies conducted in Mexico and elsewhere have shown that
female-headedhouseholds are spreadover all income strataand are in fact
relativelymore frequentamongthe nonpoor(Gonzalezde la Rocha, 1999b;
see also CEPAL, 1996, for Latin America as a whole). The poorest house-
holds in Mexico seem to be headedby men with womenas the only economic
providers (Cortds and Rubalcava, 1995). According to these researchers,
household headship (whether in female or male hands) does not in itself
explain greateror lesser povertyand female-headedhouseholdsare not the
poorestof the poor.Householdsin which income is generatedonly by men or
by women are poorerthan others,whetherfemale- or male-headed(Cortes
and Rubalcava,1995). The combinationof female and male incomes seems
to be linked to bettereconomic situations,and this combinationis found in
households with more than 2.5 workers. Female-headedhouseholds rely
heavily thoughnot exclusively on women'sincomes, andthe richestones are
those in which, apartfrom the combinationof men's and women's incomes,
the latter are predominant.My findings also showed that female-headed

households were better equippedto protect their patternsof consumption
thanmale-headedhouseholds.In fact, householdsheadedby women showed
less dramaticchanges in theirdiets, less violence, anda more equal distribu-
tion of responsibilities(Gonzalez de la Rocha, 1991; 1999a; Chant, 1997;
1999). The greatercontrolover householdincome in women's hands seems
to be an importanttool for protectingpriorityconsumptionareas (food and
health).This, of course,pointsto the need for tools for measuringindividual
and household well-being otherthanincomes alone.
In spite of the relativesuccess of the above-mentionedchanges,economic
change in Mexico produceda rapiddeteriorationof living conditionsfor the
majorityof urbanhouseholds,andhouseholdmemberspaid a high price for
the protectionof their householdincome. They had to work more for lower
wages under worse conditions. Households depended more on informal
activities as formal ones became scarce and even exceptional.Households'
occupationalheterogeneitydiminishedand was replacedby more homoge-
neously informaland precariouswork arrangements.
RETHINKING SURVIVAL:THE POVERTY OF RESOURCES
The implicationsof currenteconomic conditionsfor the social organiza-

tion andeconomies of urbanpoorhouseholdsareto be foundin the impactof
labor exclusion and precariousemployment.9
These conditions are not conduciveto strengtheningthe social organiza-
tion of the urbanpoor householdsthathave served as the social base of sur-
vival. On the contrary,they arehelpingto reducethe capacityof these house-
holds to respondin a traditional,resources-of-povertyway by gatheringand
creatingresourcesandintensifyingthe use of theirlaborforce to achievesur-
vival and reproduction.As economic restructuringand a neoliberal ethos
make extreme hardshipa defining condition of the poor's existence, the
resources-of-povertymodel is no longer empiricallyor theoreticallyviable.
Instead,it is povertyof resourcesthatcharacterizesthe stage we arein today.
The poverty of resourcesis the outcome of labor exclusion and the persis-
tence and intensificationof poverty.It signals the erosion of the social and
economic conditions for survival, and "the point may be reached where
households are no longer able to reproducethemselves"(UNRISD, 1997).
This erosionof social systemsof supportandself-helpis due not to anyin-
herentincapacityof the poor to surviveor to escape from povertybut to the
increasingdeteriorationof labormarkets.I agreewith Moser (1996) thatthe
persistenteconomic crisis has madethe urbanpoor'sstrategiesandresource-
Gonzilezde la Rocha/ EROSION
OFA SURVIVAL
MODEL 87
fulness insufficientto offset the erosion of their asset base. Additionally,I

arguethatit is not only the poor's social capitalassets thatare being eroded
buttheircapacityto participate in alternative
occupationsandself-provisioning
activitiesin whatamountsto a perverseprocessof cumulativedisadvantage.
The social implicationsof neoliberaleconomic reformand its impact on
the population'scapacityto drawtheirliving from waged employmenthave
yet to be fully assessed, and much researchis needed to understandthem.
Some indicationsof the impactof profoundrestructuringon householdorga-
nizationcan, however,be found in the experienceof Guadalajara'spoor.
EXCLUDINGTHEPOOR
The currentnational developmentethos seems to be less inclusive of

low-skilled, little-educatedworkers.Many firms have closed, others have
been reducingtheir capacity,and the few experiencinggrowthare far from
readily accessible to the majorityof workers.The neoliberal approachto
developmentis in fact exclusive, with productiondevoted to international
markets,high productivity,and competitiverates of salaries and wages in
selected industries.The word"exclusion"is increasinglybeing used to refer
to this marginalizationof formerworkersand their encapsulationin social
categoriessuch as the "newunemployed"(Fontes,1997). Althoughit is still a
ratherambiguousconcept,I use it to referto the new phenomenonof former
workers' and would-be workers' increasingly lacking opportunities for
employment.Exportpromotiongoes handin handwith restructuringof the
labor process and the labor market(Escobar,1996) and, I would add, with
changes in householdstructureandreproductivesystems. The consolidation
of this development model has created a selective occupationalniche for
unmarriedmen andwomenwith secondaryeducationwho arenot skilled but
are willing to work for lower wages than skilled workersand, at the same
time, an immensegroupof individualswho cannotenterinto the dynamicsof
this labor system. Increasingpoverty and new forms of exclusion are the
main ingredientsof social life in Guadalajaratoday.
Exclusion is a social and structuralprocess characterizedby constant
deteriorationof laboropportunities.As Figueroa,Altamirano,and Sulmont
(1996) make clear, economic exclusion is defined in relationto a dominant
economic organizationthat preventsthe participationof certain groups or
individualsin relations,activities,and access to resourcesthatare important
anddesirable.It affects individualswho do not have the means,abilities,cre-
dentials, age, and sex to participatein the productivesystem. It involves
increasingunemployment(particularlyof youth),'?decreasingmale partici-
pationin the employmentstructure,and the increasingprecariousnessof the
availablejobs in which most womenparticipate.Finally,it goes handin hand

with the process of workforcefeminization,as unemploymenthas been cre-
ated for some while capital continues to search for others-inexpensive,
female workers.These processes are all partof the logic or dynamic of the
new trendof capitalexpansion-that of directed,restrictive,limited, exclu-
sionaryeconomic growth(Fontes, 1997). As Fontes has argued,in the con-
text of presenttransformationsthe threatseems to be coming fromwithinthe
capitaliststructure,whose expansionhas been accompaniedby forcedinclu-
sions andexclusions.The enormousriskis, of course,the creationof "unnec-
essary"groupsof people-those who arefully unemployedandhave lost the
centralreferencesto guide theirlives.
Central to the new trends in the employment structure,according to a
recentanalysis(Salas, 1998), arethe constantanddrasticdecline of male par-
ticipation and the consistent increase in women's economic participation.
Manufacturinghas lost its shareof employmentexcept for the maquiladoras,
and new patterns of age composition of the employment structurehave
emerged: workersare leaving waged employmentfor self-employmentat
earlier momentsin theirlives, and they are becomingdisposableearlierand
younger than in the past. Regional differences have increased, and an
employmentbelt is emergingin the Northof Mexico while the Southfaces a
lack of employmentalternativesand increasingpoverty.
Accordingto Escobar(1996), the 1994 financialcrisis signalsa watershed
for Mexican labormarketsbecausefor the first time since 1982 the popula-
tion did not respond with a general intensificationof work and informal
employment.Instead,unemploymentsoared.While women's participation
rates continued to rise, men's fell for the first time since the 1982 crisis
(700,000 womenbutonly 300,000 menenteredthe laborforce between 1993
and 1995). Unemploymentamongmale youthreachedunprecedentedlevels
in 1995 andwas almost30 percentin the mainmetropolitanareasduringthat
year.Escobararguesthatthe abatementof these levels after1995 may be due
to withdrawalaltogetherfromthejob searchratherthanthe successful com-
pletion of the searchfor work, since male employmenthas continuedto fall.
In a previousarticle (Escobarand Gonzalez de la Rocha, 1995), we argued
thatinformalemploymentand informalincomes were stagnatingat the end
of the Salinasperiod(theearly 1990s). This stagnationresultedfromthe satu-
ration and economic marginalizationof the sector, since Mexican labor-
intensiveindustries(which relied most heavily on subcontractingand infor-
mal work) were drasticallyaffectedby the opening of externaltradeand the
influx of low-pricedAsian products.The opening of doors both to imports
andto exportshada dramaticimpacton Mexicanfirms,especially small and
medium-sizedmanufacturingenterprises,which foundthe competitionwith

commoditiesproducedabroada challenge too difficult to sustain.
From 1987 to 1993, the labor marketparticipationof women rose from
33.2 to 40.0 percentin Guadalajara,from34.5 to 38.7 percentin Mexico City,
and from 26.6 to 39.1 percent in Monterrey.The increasing presence of
women in the labormarkethas continuedup to the presentand is occurring
1
mostly in informaloccupationsandself-employment. This has been attrib-
uted to the characteristicsof the women enteringthe labor market:limited
schooling, over30 yearsold, withyoungchildren,andeithermarriedor sepa-
rated.By the late 1980s and early 1990s, self-employedwomen were work-
ing even longer hours than self-employed men (Escobar, 1996), and more
womenwere workingin familybusinesseswithoutremuneration.Morework
for less income seems to be the predominantsituationfor many women in
Mexico today.
SUSTAINED CRISIS AND THE EROSION OF SURVIVAL
Although with great difficulty,the resources-of-povertymodel operated

as long as therewere opportunitiesto work,eitherin waged activities,formal
and informal, or in self-employed occupations.Workwas associated with
low wages, buthouseholdsstill had the optionof sendingtheirmembersinto
the labor force. A good deal of household income had sources other than
wages (e.g., social exchange, domestic productionof goods and services),
but householdsdependedprimarilyon the availabilityof jobs for the neces-
sarymonetaryincome.Furthermore,theydependedon wages fromrelatively
stable work to allow them to pursueothersources of income, such as petty
commodityproduction,petty trade,and social exchange.
The crux of this article has been to suggest that urbanpoor households
face significantlydifferentconditionstoday.The currentsituation,character-
ized by new formsof exclusionandincreasingprecariousness,is unfavorable
to the operationof traditionalhouseholdmechanismsof workintensification.
Insteadof talkingaboutthe resourcesof poverty,as we havebefore,the pres-
ent situationis betterdescribedby theopposite:povertyof resources,the lack
of employmentopportunitiesin a context shapedby an exclusive economic
model.
First,the generallack of employmenthas fundamentallydisruptedhouse-
hold economies and forms of organization.If laboris the urbanpoor's most
importantresource(Moser,1996;Gonzdlezde la Rocha, 1994a),thenimpor-
tantimplicationsfor the poor's survivalandreproductionareexpectedwhen
the exclusiveness of labormarketsintensifies.The impacton householdlife
and organizationhas been profound.Although precariousemploymentdid

exist in the past, it coexisted with formal employment and autonomous
income sources.The currentsituation,by contrast,combineslack ofjobs and
precarious employment for the majority of workers, while permanent
employmenthas become rareand availableonly to a diminishingnumberof
workers.A new type of labormarketsegmentationseems to be emerging,not
along formal/informallines but between a very privilegedgroupof workers
and the vast majoritywho struggleto survivewith very limited resources.
Being unemployedmeans,firstof all, losing the regularwage thatis asso-
ciatedwithregularemployment.Apartfromthat,however,as Jahoda(quoted
by Gershunyand Miles, 1985) points out, being unemployedinvolves lack-
ing a whole series of experiences and social links that are crucial for
well-being and social identity: physical activity, social contact, collective
purpose,time structure,and social status.It is a disruptingand dislocating
individualandsocial experiencethataffectsthe lives, the use of time, andthe
social relationshipsof the unemployedandtheirhouseholds.Daily life habits
and long-termsocial patternsare being challenged.The increasinglycom-
mon situationof not finding a job, which primarilyaffects young males in
urbanMexico, is having a strong impact on household capacity to supple-
ment the low incomes of male and female headsthroughthe participationof
young membersin the labormarket.Youngmembers,as we have seen, have
been particularlyimportantincomegeneratorsduringthe stage of the domes-
tic cycle in which the aging heads face declining incomes. The stage of the
domestic cycle in which the childrenareable to fully participatein the world
of workis one in which householdsarebetteroff and the youngest members
can take advantageof theirsiblings' contributionto the householdeconomy
to continue attendingschool.
One of the newest responsesto the lack of employmentis the increasing
emigrationof young men and women to the United States.The difficulty of
obtainingand keepingjobs in Mexicancities, togetherwith the low pay that
mostjobs offer to workers,underliedecisions to emigrateandbecome partof
transnationalcommunitiesof laborers(see also Safa, 1998, for the case of the
DominicanRepublic).While internationalmigrationused to be a phenome-
non associatedwith poorruralareasof Mexico, it now increasinglyincludes
urbanmen andwomen.In comparisonwithearlier,less permanentmigratory
patterns,the new trendof internationalmigrationis towardmore permanent
settlement.Families staying in Mexico are losing their youngest and stron-
gest workingmembers.12 Survivalin GuadalajaraandotherMexicancities is
even harderwithoutthe contributionsof these householdmembersandwith-
out the daily social exchange thatthey used to provide.
delaRocha
Gonzilez / EROSION
OFA SURVIVAL
MODEL 91
Low wages and lack of work opportunitiesalso threaten urban poor

households' internalresourcesfor survival.The role that sons used to play
tendsto disappear-through emigrationor unemployment-as a component
of householdorganization.The resourcesof povertyhave traditionallybeen
the hands and arms of the working poor. Currentconditions have reduced
adult men's capacity to act as providersby keeping young males without
working opportunitiesor pushing them to look for work in transnational
labormarkets.Female laboris one of the very few resourcesthatis available
for many households' survival.The declining role of men as breadwinners
has developedin a contextin which womenincreasinglyworkfor wages that
(althoughvery low) have become crucial for daily household maintenance
(Safa, 1995). The role of women as breadwinnersratherthan generatorsof
"additional"incomes is increasing.Women,both young and adult, married
and single, with or withoutformaleducation,aretoday amongthe main pro-
viders in many urbanpoor households.
Labor exclusion diminishes the capacity of individualsto participatein
self-provisioning, self-employment,and household petty production.The
idea thatpeople will increasinglyturnto these types of activitiesin the spare
time made availableby unemploymentdoes not seem to be correct.My case
studiesshow thatpeople withoutregularincomes (obtainedin the labormar-
ket) face enormousdifficultiesin self-provisioning.This is because there is
simply no money to invest in materials,transportation,and so on. This calls
into question the "autonomous"natureof self-provisioningand suggests a
differenthypothesis:thatself-provisioningactivitiesand householdproduc-
tion of goods andservicesforhouseholdconsumptionaredependenton regu-
lar wages coming from the labormarket.In social contexts where thereis at
least one regularwage, individualswithin householdscan devote time and
otherresources(includingsome money) to self-provisioningand household
production.In contexts where wages are sporadic,casual, or nonexistent,
individualshave very little marginfor self-provisioning.Therefore,unem-
ployment and, more generally, labor exclusion imply lack of access to a
whole range of otherincome-generatingoptions.
More generally,we could argue that households need regularwages in
orderto obtain survivalresourcesfrom other income sources. Even income
coming fromsocial exchangenetworksdependsto a certainextenton regular
wages. Networksarenot simply "there"for people to access butthe outcome
of participationin establishing and maintainingsocial linkages. They are
social constructionsthatrequire,as in the case of self-provisioningactivities,
thatsome assets be invested.Individualswho havethe resourcesto be partof
a relationshipof reciprocity,forexample,will be in a positionto maintainthat
link, and those who lack resourcesto exchange will not. Many women and
men whom I have interviewedrecentlyhave describedsuch social isolation

in the context of extremepoverty.
FINAL REMARKS
The laborexclusion I havebeendiscussingis thatwhichis foundin a labor

marketwhose organizationfavors a minorityof workersand preventsthe
majority from entering the occupationalniches that export-orientedeco-
nomic policies foster andprotect.In this sense, althoughthe export-oriented
economic model has included a feminizationof the labor force, we cannot
think of this economic/developmentmodel as an inclusive one. Although
industrializationsince the end of import substitutionhas been as much
female-ledas export-led(Joekes, 1987:82) andthe decliningparticipationof
men in the labormarketis widely recognized,13women arenot takingup the
jobs thatmen used to have, nor is theirposition the same as that of the male
workers left in such category today. Joekes (1987), who considers the
export-orientedeconomic model to favor women, recognizes the persistent
and substantialwage gap by sex (even in job-for-jobcomparisons)and the
unequaldistributionof male and female workersin differenttypes of jobs,
where most women are at the low-paid end of the job scale. Therefore,in a
contextin which women areconcentratedin low-skilled work,areemployed
because theirlaboris cheap, and have far fewer prospectsof promotionand
advancementthanmale workers(Joekes, 1987), we cannottalkaboutan eco-
nomic/developmentmodel for "girls."'4The issue here,as Joekesclearlyrec-
ognizes, is that the internationalfactor gives preferenceto low wages. We
should not be surprisedat women's decisions to continue working even
though they are awareof their "cheap"and unequalexchange of hardwork
for indecently poor wages. Women need and like earningcash and having
monetaryrewards(apartfrom the importantfact that they and their house-
holds needthose wages). But althoughthisbalancehas positivefeatures,they
arenot enoughto negatethe generalsocial andstructuralprocessof exclusion
and segmentationof low-income populationsthat currentdevelopment is
producing. Much research and thinking are needed, however, to reach a
clearerpictureof the differentialimpact of currenteconomic conditions on
men and women. I have suggested that labor exclusion is creating new
genderedhousehold patternsin which men are losing theircapacity to per-
formtheirsocially assignedrole of providersandwomen areemergingas the
new breadwinners,albeit receiving very low wages (Safa, 1995). Whether
this is leading to situationsin which women, apartfromearningwages, gain
betterconditions for bargainingand negotiatingat the household level we
still do notknow.This hypothesishasbeen discussedin Mexico since the first

signs of women's increasingentranceinto the labormarketwere seen in the
early 1980s, andthe debatehas not led us to an agreement.My conclusion is
thateconomic and cultural/socialchangesproceedat differentrates,the for-
mer being rapid and the latterslow. But women are not passive victims of
these processes, and they are undertakingacts of resistancethat need to be
seriously analyzed. The increasingrates of divorce and separation(as out-
comes of women's own decisions) and the growing numbersof households
"reconstituted" undermoredemocraticrelationshipsaresignals of activeand
resistingwomenin searchof less oppressivelives. Perhapsfuturegenerations
of women workersand women breadwinnerswill encountermore favorable
conditions for performingtheirduties as providers,mothers,and wives.
Households are dynamicand diversesocial units thatevolve and change
both as a response to externalforces and in accordancewith their internal
dynamics. There are evidences of this process of change and some indica-
tions of a crisis of the nuclear-familymodel. Withinthis range of diversity,
which includes nuclear,extended,reconstituted,and female-headedhouse-
holds, there are some householdsthat are betterable to cope with external
social and economic changes. Among these are female-headedhouseholds,
which, in spiteof the difficultiestheyface, havemanagedto protecttheircon-
sumption patterns during economic crises. Extended and consolidated
(mature)households have traditionallybeen more successful at protecting
theirincomes, since they have a largerpool of laborto drawfrom. However,
the currenteconomic situationerases their comparativeadvantageas they
face many difficultiesin puttinglaborto work.
The contributionof sourcesof householdincome otherthanwages seems
to dependon the capacityof the householdto generatemonetaryincome, and
here wages play a crucialrole. The better-offhouseholdsarethose thatman-
age to have multiple strategiesfor generatingincome from diverse sources,
butthis seems to be the resultof theirwage-earningcapacity.In otherwords,
petty commodityproduction,domesticproductionof goods and services for
household consumption,and social exchange throughnetworkingare not
activities thatcan be takenfor granted.They requirean investmentof time,
effort (labor), and money.'5This may seem a rathersimple point, but like
many simple things it is important.People need decently remunerated
employmentto live. Incomefrom othersourcescan complementbut cannot
replacewages in an urbancapitalistsociety. Emphasizingsurvivalstrategies
to the point of losing sight of the limits of these strategiescan lead to argu-
ments with extremely dangerousimplications.The emphasis on the multi-
plicity of income sourcesthatwas partof the resources-of-povertymodel and
the data gatheredon households' responses to the 1980s crisis helped to
createthe impressionthatthe poorwould surviveeven withoutemployment.

This view is wrong. Our past analyses did not emphasize enough the real
importanceof wages coming from the marketas the triggerfor otheractivi-
ties andthereforethe motorof reproductionandcould notpredictthe erosion
of othersources of income when wages were absent.
The occupational heterogeneity that is inherent in the resources-of-
poverty model once led me to arguethathouseholds acted as melting pots,
counteringthe incipienttendencytowardsegmentation(on formal-informal
lines) of the labormarket.It was hardto classify a householdas belonging to
different occupationalcategories, because it included workersof different
kinds. Working-classlife was shapedby the relationshipbetween a produc-
tive structureandlabormarketthatoffereddifferentoptionsanda household
organizationthat was based on multiple insertionsof its membersinto that
structure.The currentsituation,markedby the scarcityof labor options for
the majority,is producingreal deteriorationof income and survivalsources.
A huge gap betweenthe very privilegedwho can obtainpermanentemploy-
mentandthose excludedfromit is increasing.New segmentationfeaturesare
emerging, and this time households seem to be less able to counterbalance
them. The "meltingpot"has fewer ingredientsfor the soup.
There are, fortunately, many exceptions to the poverty-of-resources
model. The elements of what I have called the erosion of survivalmecha-
nisms are, however,present.If employmentcontinues to shrinkand labor
marketscontinueto be characterizedby exclusion andprecariousness,fewer
exceptions and a more general applicationof the model can be expected,
leading to a crisis of social reproductionfor the excluded, disposable urban
majorities.
NOTES
1. See Torrado(1995) for an interestingview of the relevanceof social policies and devel-
opment strategiesfor the poor's capacity to overcome "the intergenerationaltrap of poverty"
throughupwardsocial mobility or to fall into destitutionin Argentina.
2. The absence of options is clearly an extremesituationthat very few householdsexperi-
ence. WhatI wantto pointout is thatthe deteriorationof the labormarketis increasinglynarrow-
ing households'options.
3. Sen's (1993) conceptof "capabilities"is especially appropriatefor referringto the alter-
nativecombinationsof charactersand functionsthathouseholdsmay have at differentpoints of
time or underdifferentsocial situations.It allows one to thinkaboutwider or narroweralterna-
tive combinationsandthereforethe moreor less real opportunitiesto act andto performcertain
functions.
4. Althoughmy databegin at the end of this period,it is still valid to arguethatthey corre-
spond to the precrisisperiod of Mexican development.This does not mean that the situation
described by my data is valid for the national reality or for a social situationthat persisted
throughoutthe import-substitution-industrialization stage, which had many variations.
5. I do not want to give the wrong impressionof the import-substitution-industrialization
model as "good."Low wages and difficultliving conditionswere partof it.
6. While at the beginning of the 1970s 40 percentof the LatinAmericanpopulationwas
poor, by 1980 the percentageof the poor had decreasedto 35. Urbanpovertyalso diminished,
althoughto a lesser extent, from 26 percentof urbanhouseholdsin 1970 to 25 percentin 1980
(CEPAL,1991; Gonzalez de la Rocha, 1995b).
7. Datafromothercountriesshow the sametrend.Householdtotalincomein Venezuelafell
22 percentwhile individualincomes fell 34 percent,and in Costa Rica it declined 14 percent
comparedwith 22 percentof individualincomes (CEPAL,1991: 23).
8. The contributionof male headsof householdscameto representno morethan60 percent
of households'incomes in most LatinAmericancountries(CEPAL,1991).
9. Expertson laborstructuresarguethatunemploymentis not a good indicatorof labormar-
ket transformationsin Mexico (Brfgida Garcia, personal communication).Unemployment,
however,is anethnographicdatum,a phenomenonthatpeopledescribeas a new problemin their
lives andan obstacleto bettermaterialconditions.Itcan be considered,therefore,as an indicator
of people's perspectivesof increasingexclusion and precariousness.
10. The new unemployedareindividualswho fall in the traditionalcategoryof "notworking
andlooking for work."Forthese individuals,however,extendedperiodsof unemploymentarea
permanentfeatureof their lives. Latin Americanacademicshave often pointed out that unem-
ploymentis a luxurythatLatinAmericanpopulationscannotafford.Indeed,we are witnessing
the creationof a social categorythatwithoutthe supportof stateagencies falls into destitutionor
becomes an extraburdenon alreadyimpoverishedhouseholds.
11. Sixty-sevenpercentof the women workingon theirown accountin Guadalajarain 1990
had not been active in 1982, and the averageschooling of these women was less than six years
(Escobar,1996).
12. Remittancesare an importantasset for manyhouseholdsin Mexico, butthe progressive
settlementof migrantsin the UnitedStates,with marriageandthe laterappearanceof U.S.-born
children,regularlyreduces such remittances.
13. The participationof women continuesto rise. Datafromoursurveyof labormarketsand
householdpatternsin six Mexicancities showthatfrom 1987 to 1993 the participationof women
rose from33.2 to 40 percentin Guadalajara,from34.5 to 38.7 percentin Mexico City, andfrom
26.6 to 39.1 percentin Monterrey,the country'sthree largestcities (Escobar,1996). Informal
occupationsarestill the principaldestinationfor these new female workersdespitethe maquila-
dorasector's growth.
14. Contraryto Joekes's view, it is hardto arguethatexport-orientedeconomic model has
favoredwomen's economic emancipationthroughtheir inclusion in paid work. My work and
thatof otherresearchersin Mexico has shownthatearningscontrolis not an automaticoutcome
of women's labormarketparticipation,muchless a more favorableposition for bargainingand
makingdecisions within the household.Beneriaand Roldan (1987) found that women's earn-
ings were subjectto male control.GarciaandOliveira(1994) showed thathouseholdsin which
women were the mainprovidersbutlived with theirhusbandswere the sites of the most evident
household violence, women frequentlybeing batteredand "punished."My own findings also
revealedthat women's earningscould hardlybe seen as a means of emancipation,since many
women have to hide theirpaidworkfromhusbandsandtheirwages are so deeply committedto
subsistencethat they are consumedimmediatelyand almost invisibly (Gonzalez de la Rocha,
1994a).
15. Pahl'sresearchin Britain(1984) also pointedto the intimaterelationshipbetweenwages

obtainedin the labormarketand the household'scapacityto undertake"do-it-yourself'activi-
ties (painting,repairs,carpentry,and so on). These activitieswere mainlyperformedby house-
holds in which therewas at least one memberemployed.Employmentof one memberwas found
to be associatedwith the employmentof othermembersof the household,while unemployment
of one memberwas associated with unemploymentof the rest and there was no possibility of
devoting resourcesto "do-it-yourself'activities (see also Pahl and Wallace, 1985).
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From the Resources of Poverty to the Poverty of Resources?: The Erosion of a

Article in Latin American Perspectives · July 2001

Mercedes González de la Rocha

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action very much dependson the developmentstrategiesof societies andthe

HOUSEHOLD RESEARCH AND SURVIVALSTRATEGIES

To argue for a shift from the "resourcesof poverty"to the "povertyof

lives (Nussbaumand Sen, 1993). This taskinvolves thick,rich, andcomplex

HOUSEHOLDS AND CHANGE

resourcescoexist (Gonzalezde la Rocha, 1994a),the householdis not a black

treating women and other household members as fully submergedin the

THE RESOURCES OF POVERTY

During periodswhen economic growthhas been paralleledby job avail-

urbanLatinAmericancontextsrevealedmany similaritiesto the situationit

Incomederivedfromwages obtainedin the formalandinformalsectorsof

reproductionof laborpower,withoutwhich nothingelse could be produced

Urbanhouseholdsreliedfor theirsurvivalprimarilyon wages obtainedin

street vendors, informal laborers, artisans, domestic employees, and the

IMPLICATIONS OF THE MODEL

Householdsurvivaland reproductionwere achievedthrougha combina-

activitiesor the mainprovider(s)failedto act as such becauseof illness, aban-

One of the most interesting developments in the field of household

structuralchanges (e.g., see Beneria, 1992; Escobar and Gonzalez de la

From 1982, whenthe debtcrisis exploded,to 1986, official andreal wages

Between 1986 and 1988profoundrestructuring beganto takeplace.Wages

ADJUSTING THE HOUSEHOLD

Householdresponsesto the crisis of the 1980s andthe transformationthat

(GarciaandOliveira,1994). Apartfromadultwomen,young males-sons-

(e.g., eggs or organmeatsuch as liverandheart).Therewere, of course, very

the latter are predominant.My findings also showed that female-headed

RETHINKING SURVIVAL:THE POVERTY OF RESOURCES

The implicationsof currenteconomic conditionsfor the social organiza-

fulness insufficientto offset the erosion of their asset base. Additionally,I

The currentnational developmentethos seems to be less inclusive of

availablejobs in which most womenparticipate.Finally,it goes handin hand

medium-sizedmanufacturingenterprises,which foundthe competitionwith

SUSTAINED CRISIS AND THE EROSION OF SURVIVAL

Although with great difficulty,the resources-of-povertymodel operated

and organizationhas been profound.Although precariousemploymentdid

Low wages and lack of work opportunitiesalso threaten urban poor

men whom I have interviewedrecentlyhave describedsuch social isolation

The laborexclusion I havebeendiscussingis thatwhichis foundin a labor

still do notknow.This hypothesishasbeen discussedin Mexico since the first

createthe impressionthatthe poorwould surviveeven withoutemployment.

15. Pahl'sresearchin Britain(1984) also pointedto the intimaterelationshipbetweenwages

de la Rocha (ed.), Divergencias del modelo tradicional:Hogares de jefaturafemenina en

1993 "Capabilityandwell-being,"in MarthaNussbaumandAmartyaSen (eds.), The Qual-

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