Spatial Frontiers and Neo-communitarian Identities in the City: The Case of Santiago de Chile

Abstract

This article analyses the different, yet similar, processes of identity-building used by poor and middle-income inhabitants of Santiago, Chile. It is suggested that these identity-building processes express the current type of urban segregation in this city and point to a weakening of the previously predominant model, which was based on the acceptance of social differences and daily exchanges between these sectors. Additionally, it is contended that the notion of `public space' and values, such as (political) citizenship and social integration, have weakened. Paradoxically, this `new' urban segregation has paved the way for a practice of neo-communitarian lifestyles, which supposedly reinforce the value of `us' and protect this `us' from the danger posed by `them'.