Urban anthropology: analysis of social dynamics in urban contexts

Abstract

In the city of León Guanajuato, almost two million inhabitants walk, live and make possible the socio-cultural life of a territory that is distinguished by its activities linked to industry and the manufacture of footwear. The body is the vehicle for inhabiting this concrete jungle, it is the means of making oneself present in the urban space. The aim of this paper is to analyze how some sectors of the working class in León develop skills to inhabit and appropriate the city. Their bodies assume the effects of complicated transfers and long working days, but they also allow themselves to enjoy a moment of leisure to counteract the inequalities to which they are subjected in the urban experience. For this exercise I propose a look at the activities linked to three scenarios: the first, to one of the traditional trades of León, Guanajuato through the analysis of the bodily activities linked to the production of footwear in family workshops; a second scenario of bodily practices is mobility in public transport and finally I share a reflection on bodily enjoyment in the city through the analysis of sonidero dance and cumbia as a unifying of the body-city relationship of this sector of the population.