Los problemas de lo urbano y la vivienda en el museo social argentino: notas desde la perspectiva de la Economía Social a principio de siglo XX

Abstract

This paper proposes to observe, from a historical perspective, the constitution of Museo Social Argentino (MSA) as an articulate space of a discourse on housing and city problems, starting from the analysis of the institutional Bulletin and the minutes of the 1st Congreso Argentino de la Habitación. The MSA was a social space integrated by different networks. Its foundation served the purpose of establishing itself as an Institute of Social Economy, for this reason it decided to cover all the problems related to the so called social question, among which were housing and city problems. For its members, the urban matter was a problematic issue to solve that included a number of topics such as communal services, housing and labor’s problems, etc. Even though the housing problem was not a central issue for the institution, the increment in costs of living – including renting prices- and the high social unrest made the MSA assume the responsibility of studying the urban and rural housing problem, which corollary was the organization of the 1st Congreso Argentino de la Habitación in 1920