Social suffering, conflictivity and poverty: an approach from the experiences of immigrants from neighboring countries living in Buenos Aires City

The ways in which conflictivity sets how people dwell in contexts of extreme deprivation is an issue that exerts tension on the diverse manners in which bodies and emotions are engaged in various levels of social pain. The many ways and contents that suffering assumes in its connections with urban poverty, also crosses with “interstitial practices” that challenge resignation and impotence as logics of accepting and making the world visible. From a sociology of bodies/emotions, this article aims at discussing suffering as an emotion, and conflict as a practice and condition for social reproduction, taking as an empirical reference in-depth interviews given through 2015 and 2016 to immigrants from neighboring countries, who live in slums in Buenos Aires City. The links between sensibilities, conflictivities and social policies are discussed, deepening in some tensions/connections identified between pain and “interstitial practices” associated with poverty, urban informality and social policies.