Mariana Heredia is a sociologist, graduated from the University of Buenos Aires and completed master's and doctoral studies at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris. She is currently an independent researcher at the National Council for Scientific and Technical Research. She is a regular professor and director of the Master's in Economic Sociology at the Institute of High Social Studies of the University of San Martín. Mariana is a specialist in the sociology of social inequalities and power, her interests range from right-wing intellectuals, business corporations, economic technocracy, and the upper classes.

 

Publications (selection)

Books

2019 (Edited with Paula Canelo). Los puentes y las puertas. Las fronteras de la política argentina a través de sus elites, Buenos Aires, UNSAM Edita.

2015. Cuando los economistas alcanzaron el poder (O de cómo se construyó la confianza en los expertos), Buenos Aires, Siglo XXI, 2015, 299 p.

2014. A quoi sert un économiste. Enquête sur les nouvelles téchnologies de gouvernement, París, La Découverte, col. Les empechêurs de penser en rond, 2014, 248 p.

 

Chapters

2021. “Scales, Inequalities, and Elites in Latin America”, Global Dialogue, 11, 1, abril 2021, pp. 54-55.

2020. “La reproducción fallida de las elites. Inestabilidad y transformaciones de las elites empresariales argentinas entre 1976 y 2015”, Revista Española de Sociología (RES) (junto a Ana Castellani), 29 (3), 2020, pp. 467-486.

2019 (with Claudia Daniel). “The taming of prices. Framing and fighting inflation in the second half of the twentieth century in Argentina”, Economic Sociology_The European Electronic Newsletter, Vol. 20, 2,. 6-14. Disponible en: http://econsoc.mpifg.de/downloads/02_Heredia_Daniel_Econsoc-NL_20 2_March2019.pdf

2019 (with Gabriela Benza) “La desigualdad desde arriba: Análisis de los estratos socio-económicos altos de Buenos Aires”, Trabajo y Sociedad  2019, 5-23.

2016. “Redes contra campos. La unidad y la diversidad de los economistas en la Argentina reciente”, Revista RELET, Año 21, num. 34. Disponible en http://alast.info/relet_ojs/index.php/relet/issue/view/relet34/RELET%2034%20-%20ALAST 

2015. “Globalización y clases altas en el auge del vino argentino”, Trabajo y Sociedad, nº 24, Verano Santiago del Estero, 267-284. Disponible en: http://www.unse.edu.ar/trabajoysociedad/24%20Heredia%20Mariana%20clases%20altas%20en%20vino.pdf

 

Research Project as CALAS fellow

Title: Beyond the Demonization of the Rich: Measurement and State of Wealth in four Latin American countries

Abstract: Considered one of the most unequal regions, for years Latin America attracted attention for its vulnerable populations. This concern was accentuated with market reforms, globalization and more recently with the Covid-19 crisis, that reversed the progress achieved in the first decade of the 21st century. As a consequence, the social sciences lost their relational perspective, interested in all social groups and, above all, in the relationship established between them.

The works of Thomas Piketty and OXFAM managed to arouse interest in "the rich" as fundamental links in the understanding of inequalities. In their publications, they argue that wealth is concentrated in a tiny minority of citizens who are located in the top 1% or 0.1% of the distribution. These diagnoses led to a moral judgment that reached the virtual demonization of the rich and reform proposals to raise taxes on their fortunes.

Although these approaches managed to reincorporate a certain relational gaze and illuminate the magnitude of contemporary inequalities. This project intends to go one step further. In order to interpret the specificities and mechanisms of capital accumulation in Latin America, it is necessary to open the black box of the notion of "rich" and, anchoring the reflection in the study of four major nations of the continent, explore their theoretical, methodological, and programmatic inadequacies. First, the notion of the rich, like that of the poor, ignores the historical and regional particularities of capital. Second, it is based on conceptual definitions and empirical evidence that do not have the same validity in all countries. Finally, the reform proposals in the region face limits that reinforce the objections formulated in developed nations, raising doubts about their relevance and effectiveness.

Combining economic, productive, and business history, information from national accounts, Forbes, wealth consultants and tax records, the case of Mexico, Brazil, Chile, and Argentina will be analyzed to advance in the identification of strengths and weaknesses in the conventionally used notion of wealthy, as well as in the proposal of measurements and characterizations more adjusted to the particularities of wealth in the region.