The context of structural crisis that has worsened on a global scale in the last three or four decades has led to the emergence of social practices and organizations dedicated to managing the satisfaction of needs outside of conventional markets, in an attempt to generate community and autonomy through the recovery of social relations, the environment and the health of the population, aspects increasingly affected by the currently dominant model of mass production and consumption. The recent proliferation of alternative markets, consumer cooperatives, community gardens, barter clubs and other proposals that have emerged in cities such as Guadalajara account for the ways in which it is built on a daily basis, based on consumption, exchange and self-provisioning decisions, the utopia of a better world. From a mapping exercise of actors of the alternative economies of the city, it was possible to identify the configuration of a network of spaces where these practices are promoted, as well as the horizons in which their meaning is anchored.

Whe text exposes the general conditions and some of the findings of three investigations with violent gangs in the metropolitan area of Guadalajara conducted between 2013 and 2016, in order to contextualize the identity representations of the gang body by young people belonging to these corner groups. From a collaborative dialogue, carried out through group interviews and jointly constructing the central ideas presented here, issues related to masculinity, emblems of power, physical appearance and gang loyalty are highlighted, as well as those agreements we reached in the joint construction of their conceptions of the body and its use from the gang. It is considered that, although this represents constant danger and aggression, their bodies must always clearly enunciate belonging to a group and cultural adscription, strength for direct physical confrontations, the potential to protect their own, and the demonstration that they are men above all else.