ABSTRACT

In this chapter we approach the implications of the conditional cash transfer (CCT) program Ingreso Ético Familiar (IEF) in the lives of a group of rural Mapuche women. By focusing on a case study, we tackle the extent to which long-term historical experiences with CCT programs (that do not imply substantial amounts of money), aimed at overcoming poverty, have shaped these women’s self perception as poor. For this, it is necessary to consider that IEF condenses recent social policies, carrying a liberal discourse of autonomy, potentiating women’s entrepreneurial self and a paternalistic model of social intervention. The various encounters with the state that these women have experienced through programs over decades have influenced their sense of identification with poverty as a fundamental category through which they embody citizenship. This sense of poverty entails a twofold temporality: first, of slight but constant ‘progress’ that secures that none of their children would ever ‘fall’ into deprivation. This temporality intersects with a second, erratic one in which unpredictable new programs and professionals appear and disappear. We suggest that further research articulating gender and indigeneity with interventions’ temporalities and citizenships is required to advance knowledge of the concrete impacts of CCTs.