Popular economy and essential work during the COVID-19 pandemic. The case of the health promoters of the "Frente de Organizaciones en Lucha" in Villa 1-11-14, City of Buenos Aires, Argentina

Abstract

The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the consequent lockdown, determined the occupations considered essential, including those carried out by the workers of the "Frente de Organizaciones en Lucha" in Villa 1-11-14, as health promoters. Our objective is to analyze the activities carried out by these workers in the territory they inhabit, where they are exposed to contagion, articulate with state agencies, use their own organizational resources to face the pandemic, and carry out multiple tasks focused on creating and maintaining life. The questions guiding the present study are: How did the pandemic impact the socio-community work of the organization analyzed? How was the accumulated knowledge -training and professionalization- of the women health promoters deployed in the context of the pandemic? What articulations were developed between the State and the territorial organizations in health matters? What characteristics did assume such articulation and what conflicts emerged? In what way did the insertion and territorial reference of the organization make access to health policies possible? The methodology was based on the application of in-depth interviews with delegates from the territorial organization who are engaged in health work. We return to the perspective of the theory of social reproduction in order to support our findings that show that the work of women within the framework of the organization becomes an institution of social reproduction that transcends the home and expands throughout the social territory, while their work is characterized by precariousness, low income, flexibility and task overload.