Document Type
Dissertation
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
History
Advisor's Name
Mark D. Szuchman
Advisor's Title
Committee Chair
Advisor's Name
Noble David Cook
Advisor's Name
Patricia L. Price
Advisor's Name
Victor M. Uribe-Uran
Keywords
Buenos Aires, hygiene, disease, yellow fever, small pox, public sphere, public space, private domain
Date of Defense
10-27-2011
Abstract
The maturation of the public sphere in Argentina during the late nineteenth and early twentiethcenturies was a critical element in the nation-building process and the overall development ofthe modern state. Within the context of this evolution, the discourse of disease generatedintense debates that subsequently influenced policies that transformed the public spaces ofBuenos Aires and facilitated state intervention within the private domains of the city’sinhabitants. Under the banner of hygiene and public health, municipal officials thusEuropeanized the nation’s capital through the construction of parks and plazas and likewiseutilized the press to garner support for the initiatives that would remedy the unsanitaryconditions and practices of the city. Despite promises to the contrary, the improvements to thepublic spaces of Buenos Aires primarily benefited the porteño elite while the efforts to rootout disease often targeted working-class neighborhoods. The model that reformed the publicspace of Buenos Aires, including its socially differentiated application of aesthetic order andpublic health policies, was ultimately employed throughout the Argentine Republic as theconsolidated political elite rolled out its national program of material and social development.
Recommended Citation
Meik, Kindon T., "Disease and Hygiene in the Construction of a Nation: The Public Sphere, Public Space, and the Private Domain in Buenos Aires, 1871-1910" (2011). FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 547.
http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/547