ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the interconnections between the shifting sensibilities of middle-class identities in Buenos Aires, i.e. their encompassing sentiments, moralities, perceptions, expectations, and their significant role in mediating the process of neoliberalization in the city. There is a wide consensus among social science scholars that the term middle class is a slippery one, as its boundaries are contested and forever evolving over time and place. The newspaper accounts indicate new middle-class portena sensibilities towards the working class and poor, sensibilities that became more vigorous during the transition from the 2001 crisis to the economic recovery. In the 1990s, President Carlos Menem adopted a neoliberal development model for Argentina. In the context of the promising national economic scenario, Mauricio Macri led in the first round of Buenos Aires' 2007 mayoral election against rival Daniel Filmus. Neoliberal governance in Buenos Aires has strategically mobilized the resentment and insecurity of the middle class to undergird unpopular and regressive policies and programmes.
