Borderline experiences and the effect of social and class mobilities

Abstract

In the current context of a social structure organized around the stratification of social groups in a reality of continuous transits, overcoming the definition of woman and womanhood has been central to achieving a less restrictive sociological understanding of subjects. However, imposed mobilities and transits are often accompanied by the experience of emotional and existential precariousness that are still poorly studied. In this paper, we analyze some effects of the borderline condition experienced by women. We illustrate them through the story life of Frida, a woman who experienced upward social mobility through her studies and political activism, across a life trajectory that straddled different worlds: social class, gender, national identity, possessing/being possessed, and capitalism/activism. Through the analysis of her experience and a dialogue with theories, we further investigate the effects of the interaction between both structural (place of origin, family background) and contingent (experiences of primary and secondary socialization, gendered social pressures) vital elements on the experience of living on symbolic borderlines.