The limit as an Experience of Segregation and Violence; a Reflection from Mexico City

Abstract

Starting from the concept of limit, our reflection focuses on explaining the violent behavior of the inhabitants of one of the four neighborhoods considered to be the most dangerous in Mexico City and its connection with inequality, the poverty and human fragility. In this way, the concept of limit is used as an indicator of inflection and social conflict that establishes a link between violence and the process of degradation that marginalized subjects live and unprotected of social benefit policies. Methodologically, we start from an exercise of co-construction of the knowledge experienced by those who live the limit as an objective reality, supported by in-depth interviews with nine people who live in the neighborhood. To conclude showing how the social learning of violence and abandonment by social institutions breaks down social ties, empathy and trust in the other, in the medium and long term, in such a way that violence becomes a drive for survival and preservation.