The moral education of youth in private education circuits: internal and external solidarity in upper middle and upper classes of Buenos Aires

The article analyzes the strategies of reproduction of unequal positions by Buenos Aires' upper-middle and upper classes. Based on ethnographic research, it reveals the production of the idea of a "solidary youth" through the use of differentiated educational circuits (secondary schools and private universities), selective sociability circuits (social and sports clubs with "tradition" and "prestige") that draw distinguished trajectories. These strategies are justified by the native concept of "values", analytically understood as solidarity. Solidarity is a way of enriching themselves, because it confirms a privilege that is increased accordingly to their contact with the poverty. The article conceptualizes these dynamics as an effort of institutions and families designed to reproduce a social position based on a difference perceived in moral terms and embodied in young bodies.

Keywords:
private education; inequality; youth; formation; Buenos Aires