Bases and criteria of approach to classes in Paraguayan Society

• Main Author: Luis Ortiz Sandoval
• Format: Article
• Language: Spanish
• Published: Universidad Nacional de Asunción 2020-01-01
• Series: Población y Desarrollo
• Subjects: social-classes; inequality; social-structure; structuring-criteria; social-change
• Online Access: http://scielo.iics.una.py/scielo.php?script=sci_abstract&pid=S2076-054X2020005000076&lng=es&nrm=iso&tlng=en

Considering the distribution of resources and opportunities in Paraguayan society since the 1990s, socioeconomic inequality had a marked persistence, an unquestionable condition of the weight of class relations in the social structure. The contribution of the social sciences to the study of the historical process that began in 1989 implied new discussions, both theoretical and methodological, in explaining the characteristics and implications of these relationships. This study addresses, with historical references of the Paraguayan social reality, a perspective of analysis of social classes, evaluating their interpretative force of the social transformations that took place in Paraguay, as well as accounting for the scope and limits of the social changes that they took place with the beginning of the democratization process at the end of the 20th century. Among the findings, it can be mentioned that the dispute over resources and opportunities in the market mobilizes agents to develop their market capabilities, whether for access to property or for access to educational credentials redefining both the division and the criteria themselves of class structuring. Therefore, the study is a contribution to knowledge by stating that the redefinition of the structuring criteria implies the variation of the volume and composition of the classes as part of the knowledge of the process of social transformation that accompanied the political democratization of the country.