International Sociology and International Sociology Reviews

‘Urban Poor’s Strategies of Persistence’ is our Topic of the Month for February 2026. On this topic, enjoy Free Access this month to this article by Javier Auyero (The University of Texas at Austin, USA) and Sofía Servían (Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina) published in International Sociology, Persistent bricoleurs at the urban margins. Read on to know more about the authors’ trajectory and work.

Sofía Servían and Javier Auyero

Why are you working on this topic? Could you share an experience, a fact or a person who made you get engage on that research?

Sofía grew up in a low-income neighborhood and studied anthropology at the University of Buenos Aires. A native from Argentina, Javier is professor of sociology at UT-Austin. We tell the story of our encounter in the opening pages of the book. Both of us have been interested in issues of urban marginality for a long time.

Do you have any video, recorded conference, or online material that you would like us to share with others?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzWzG7xfU-U&t=12s

What would you emphasize about your academic trajectory? Can you highlight which have been your academic positions, universities, awards, departments and research centers?

Sofía recently finished her “licenciatura” in Anthropology at the University of Buenos Aires and is a researcher at CONICET.

Javier is a professor of sociology at the University of Texas at Austin (USA) and Ikerbasque Research Professor at Universidad del País Vasco (Spain).