Delivery in the Margins

The Politics of Wellbeing in Argentine Slums

My book project examines how social movements move from the streets into the state, bringing with them the informal knowledge, practices, and networks needed to govern places the state has long neglected, such as slums and informal settlements.

Drawing on an original dataset of over 5,000 senior bureaucrats, dozens of interviews, and a survey experiment with slum leaders in Argentina, the book shows that when movement actors enter the bureaucracy, they not only influence the provision of public services but also reshape how local leaders perceive and relate to the state.

By combining administrative, experimental, and qualitative data, the book reveals that policy implementation among the most vulnerable groups is not only about what is delivered, but also about who delivers it. In this context, trust can emerge not just from institutional design, but from the ability of embedded actors to fulfill long-standing promises and engage communities through shared histories and everyday presence.

Delivery in the Margins contributes to broader debates on state capacity, bureaucratic politics, and democratic inclusion in the Global South. It challenges conventional views of the state as a fixed institutional apparatus by showing how it is continually reshaped from within, especially when actors rooted in collective organizing and marginal territories access positions of power. The book project speaks to scholars of comparative politics, urban governance, and social movements, offering new insights into how informal institutions and grassroots networks can become sources of state authority, legitimacy, and effectiveness in contexts of structural inequality and institutional absence.