Making Sense of Socio-Spatial Inequality: A Qualitative Study of Geographical Proximity and Social Distance in Buenos Aires

PhD candidate Agustina Vazquez
Agustina Vazquez
PhD candidate
Urban inequalities and social justice
Exploring the lived experience of socio-spatial inequality in Buenos Aires.

I am an urban researcher interested in the everyday construction of inequality – particularly how privilege is lived, spatialised and maintained. My doctoral research takes the case of Buenos Aires to examine how urban privilege is reproduced through subtle socio-spatial and symbolic practices. Using ethnographic methods and photography, I explore how proximity and distance (both social and geographical) shape the lived experience and reproduction of urban difference.

I am part of the White Rose Doctoral Training Programme interdisciplinary research network ‘Urban Citizenship and Informality’, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, with partners at the University of 91Ö±²¥, the University of York and the University of Leeds. I am also a visiting scholar at the Urban Ethnography Lab at the University of Texas at Austin.

Beyond my thesis, my research interests include:

  • Urban precarity and housing insecurity
  • Elites and spatial privilege
  • Qualitative and visual methodologies
  • Inclusive, creative and critical teaching practices

Supervisors: Dr Melanie Lombard, Prof Rowland Atkinson, (University of York)


MA in Social Research, University of 91Ö±²¥
MSc in Social and Cultural Psychology, London School of Economics and Political Science
PGDip in Social and Political Anthropology, Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences
BA in Psychology, Favaloro University
 
I have worked internationally as a teaching and research assistant. I am also an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (AFHEA), with a teaching approach grounded in critical, inclusive and creative pedagogy – using dialogue, art, real-world cases and contextual thinking to foster reflection and civic awareness in diverse classrooms. Outside academia, I have worked as a social adviser for the Social and Urban Integration Agency of the Province of Buenos Aires Government.

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