Abstract

RODRIGUEZ TORRENT, Juan Carlos  and  MIRANDA BOWN, Pablo Andrés. INDUSTRIAL AND SOCIAL TIME IN MARÍA ELENA, THE LAST NITRATE TOWN. Chungará (Arica) [online]. 2008, vol.40, n.1, pp.81-97. ISSN 0717-7356.  http://dx.doi.org/10.4067/S0717-73562008000100008.

This article deals with the precarious existential condition of present inhabitants, workers and co-workers of the nitrate plant town María Elena, located in the north of Chile. It also refers to the traditional cultural background. It focuses in the new mercantile dynamics and forms of labor that are being imposed and their impact in identity and sociability, as well as in the alteration of confidence and certainty about the town. All this occurs in a “culture of unemployment” beyond the remains of the mythic history of nitrate workers.

Keywords : Identity; extreme poverty; social exclusion; assistantship; labor culture; technological change; labor flexibility.

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