ABSTRACT
This chapter explores an insufficiently explored area in the study of youth joblessness; by analyzing data collected through fieldwork it reveals the way in which flesh-and-blood young people have lived through waste picking and street vending processes. As the government enacted neoliberal precepts of structural adjustment in the construction of its neoliberal state, finance capital took the place of social policies. These neoliberal transformations have had an undeniable effect on the ways in which Argentines imagine what constitutes legitimate work. In conjunction with growing unemployment, the dispute over what work is and what it is not expanded and crossed new borders. There was a strong erosion of the social citizenship model associated with the welfare state of the mid-20th century. Upon reaching youth they have achieved prolonged and naturalized experiences in a previously stigmatized task. The simultaneously experienced feelings of shame and pride can only be understood in the context of Argentine history.
