Senior Research Seminar 28th November with Professor Sian Lazar (University of Cambridge)

Senior Research Seminar 28th November with Professor Sian Lazar (University of Cambridge)States of suspension. Life in Argentina’s political laboratory.

 

In the last five years, Argentines have experienced pandemic, runaway inflation, and extreme political-economic experimentation. A year after self-declared anarcho-libertarian Javier Milei was elected President, international markets and mainstream financial media began to declare victory for his plans to stabilise the economy; two years after, he faced a political setback in one set of mid-term elections, prompting renewed market instability. Meanwhile, ordinary people wait to see what will happen. In this paper I will explore the states of uncertainty and the possibilities for political action prompted by both the illness that led to his election (inflation) and the medicine he is implementing (radical structural adjustment and defunding of the state). I analyse them as temporal orientations towards the economy and political life and consider how temporalities can serve as a valuable analytical lens on social experience.