Valuing and devaluing: Struggles over social payments, dignity, and sneakers

Abstract

This article examines the valuation struggles around Argentina's Asignación Universal por Hijo para Protección Social (AUH), a large conditional cash transfer (CCT) program introduced in 2009. Thinking about value as a verb invites us to move away from reified notions and to consider the work differently positioned social actors do to value and devalue specific ideas, practices, people, and things. The article identifies two broad perspectives on the AUH, one that frames the social payments as an entitlement based on the rights of children and the other that frames the AUH as social assistance or help. There were many reasons to believe the AUH would have broad social support, yet most people, even most beneficiaries, saw the AUH as assistance rather than a right. Two other key concepts at play are work and dignity. These diverse views intersect—surprisingly—in discussion around sneakers, a topic that every interview and commentary on the AUH seems eventually to mention. Sneakers appear as a sign of dignity or as evidence of misspent government funds. This article thus attends to how political struggles are centrally about the practices of valuing and devaluing specific kinds of people.