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Paper short abstract

This paper examines popular economies in Javier Milei’s Argentina as arenas in which collective futures are negotiated. It shows how practices of making a living shape political formation, revealing both frustration and renewed possibilities for cooperation and hope even in times of crisis.

Paper long abstract

The election of Javier Milei as president of Argentina in 2023—the ‘anarcho-libertarian’ who claimed he would destroy the state from within to free society and the economy—radically changed the country’s political landscape. Taking many by surprise, his rise raised pressing questions about how to imagine the future in a country repeatedly marked by cyclical crises, at a moment when the radical right seems to have displaced the progressive left as the primary vehicle for rebelliousness and popular indignation (Stefanoni 2024). This paper addresses the current conjuncture by examining popular economies as arenas in which collective futures, political identities, and moral claims are actively negotiated. Drawing on a decade of ethnographic research with migrant garment workers and members of the Unión de Trabajadores de la Economía Popular (UTEP), it analyses how workers navigate precarious livelihoods in shifting political landscapes, showing that practices of making a living shape processes of political formation. Workers’ everyday struggles generate divergent responses to crisis, ranging from renewed commitments to solidarity and collective action to disillusionment, withdrawal, and political resentment. Ultimately, the paper argues that close attention to everyday practices within popular economies is essential for understanding how frustration and political disengagement can take hold, as well as how hope can be rebuilt and alternative futures imagined through cooperation, experimentation, and mutual care.