Abstract

FASANO, Patricia et al. The Meaning of Gossip in an Urban Poor Community. Cienc. docencia tecnol. [online]. 2009, n.39, pp.49-85. ISSN 1851-1716.

This paper explains the meaning of gossip as a communication practice in an urban poor community of Paraná city (Argentina). Through an ethnographic research carried out in La Pasarela (by other name Belgrano) neighborhood between 2002 and 2003, the authors show how the practice of gossip puts into form -gives form, performs- some specific characteristics of urban poverty sociality, specially constituting a paradigmatic manifestation of place that community dimension presents within that sociality. Through an analysis that emphasizes the constructive condition of communication practices -and of discursive ones in general- it is aimed to show how gossip constitutes a kind of sociality being at the same time its product.

Keywords : Social anthropology; Gossip; Communication; Poverty; Performance.

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