Agustina Vazquez

Making Sense of Socio-Spatial Inequality: A Qualitative Study of Geographical Proximity and Social Distance in Buenos Aires

I am an urban researcher interested in the everyday construction of inequality – particularly how privilege is lived, spatialised and maintained. My doctoral research takes the case of Buenos Aires to examine how urban privilege is reproduced through subtle socio-spatial and symbolic practices. Using ethnographic methods and photography, I explore how proximity and distance (both social and geographical) shape the lived experience and reproduction of urban difference.

I am part of the White Rose Doctoral Training Programme interdisciplinary research network ‘Urban Citizenship and Informality’, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, with partners at the University of Sheffield, the University of York and the University of Leeds. I am also a visiting scholar at the Urban Ethnography Lab at the University of Texas at Austin.

Supervisors: Dr Melanie Lombard, Prof Rowland Atkinson, Prof Indrajit Roy (University of York)

Beyond my thesis, my research interests include:

• Urban precarity and housing insecurity
• Elites and spatial privilege
• Qualitative and visual methodologies
• Inclusive, creative and critical teaching practices

I have worked internationally as a teaching and research assistant. I am also an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (AFHEA), with a teaching approach grounded in critical, inclusive and creative pedagogy – using dialogue, art, real-world cases and contextual thinking to foster reflection and civic awareness in diverse classrooms. Outside academia, I have worked as a social adviser for the Social and Urban Integration Agency of the Province of Buenos Aires Government.