Production of public space in community-based Urbanizations in Chile

Abstract

The reality of public space in Latin America is contrary to the conception of European culture in that it is challenging to build inclusion and where the common emerges as a space of daily interaction: they are urban spaces where notorious dynamics of self-segregation and in which it is complicated to embody anonymity (Araujo, 2019). Our reality is strongly linked to the community: a small-scale society mediated by solidarity and self-organization (Garcés, 2002; Skewes, 2005).

In deprived and self-constructed urbanizations in Chilean cities, the street ("Calle") or the soccer field ("Cancha") are placed with an intense load of memory and a sense of belonging for their inhabitants and where it is possible to constitute a shared space in a very characteristic way. The street is the place that allows commerce under specific rules (flea markets). The soccer field, a multipurpose rectangle barred all around with high bars that allow it to be locked, is a device for indoor games, sports, and entertainment, but always in the logic of different audiences that share the space gradually.

The research project presented here explains how specific spaces, such as the street and the field, are produced and inhabited; it studies them empirically, establishing contrasts and coincidences with the global north and south theories. It analyzes them as everyday spaces, reflecting a memory of co-production and conviviality. At the same time, the question arises if building a public sphere in them is possible despite the community regime in which they were created.

The approach of this study recognizes that the term “public space,” coming from the global north, has conquered the Latin American sphere. However, it realizes that, at the same time and as various Latin American authors maintain, this European ideal of public space has been incomplete in interpreting how Latin American societies are produced and deployed in these spaces (Deutsche, 2018; Magalhães, 2010). In line with Hérnández García, the focus is instead on their condition as “open spaces” - avoiding the discussion on ownership (Hernández García, 2012). We adhere to a view on “collective spaces,” emphasizing the appropriation of space for private purposes or a limited group (Duhau and Giglia, 2008). Moreover, we are concerned about their condition as “co-places” - which are not only co-inhabited (use) but also co-produced and, in doing so, give meaning to the experience of space (Rocca, 2020).

At the same time, the notion of community in Latin American cities is strained by the values ​​that the cultural model of modernity introduced: the logic of privatization, as well as territorialization and life in “islets of sociability” (Delgado, 2019; Araujo 2019), and also a territory available for the agency of “hyperactor” individuals (Araujo and Martucelli 2010) who open themselves to new rules of interaction and social agreement in a reality already influenced by more global phenomena.

The theoretical-methodological key in studying these spaces is the analysis of appropriations, whether those constitute domination or possibilities of emancipation (Bordieu 1991, Chombart de Lauwe 1979). Through interviews with inhabitants and commented tours, the vision and experience of the public and community are understood from the perspective of inhabitants of different ages, differentiating the perspective of boys and girls, as well as adults. The perception of the inhabitants is complemented with a spatial analysis of the spaces, objects of appropriation, and uses given to the spaces.