The interstitial field of the piquetero leaders
Community organizations acting as street-level bureaucrats were studied through the role and mediation of agents who, in specific local contexts, facilitate or constrain the access of beneficiaries to basic public services. Centred on the case of piquetero leaders in charge of social benefits in Argentina, this article seeks to understand, through the notion of interstitial field, the genesis and dynamics of a group of social assistance intermediaries located at the crossroads of several fields (political, bureaucratic, economic). First of all, the field theory implemented here confirms that the role of social assistance intermediary groups cannot be understood solely on the basis of ideological issues or the description of a few singular trajectories. Founded on qualitative and quantitative career approaches that resulted in a factorial analysis of multiple correspondences, the article shows that the legitimacy of this group of intermediaries with the popular bases that they represent rests on significant cultural and activist resources. Placed at the head of associations that have acquired state “counter” functions, these intermediaries have consolidated their role as representatives of working-class neighbourhoods and, thereby, their appeal to the worlds of power. At the same time, however, they find themselves captive in this position which they must preserve at all costs in order to continue to obtain professional opportunities outside the piquetero space. Finally, the interweaving of militant, bureaucratic, and entrepreneurial logics specific to this field highlights the reconfigurations of the Argentinian political field from the 2010s with the entry of these new actors who are the supporters of the new Right.