“Todos somos víctimas”

Acerca del “vecino”

Abstract

This article analyzes the process by which the category of vecinos (neighbors) becomes a synonym of víctimas de la inseguridad (victims of insecurity) in what we call “security discourse”, for Buenos Aires city during the last decade. The condensation of both categories reinforces the legitimacy of social demands coming from vecinos –which are presented as “apolitical”–, and that it also deepens a diagnosis that makes inseguridad a state of permanent threat which requires community self-organization for its management. The analysis is based on discursive sequences produced by self-defined “vecinales” associations that have insecurity as one of their major issues.