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Although there has been a number of studies on the first Chilean neighborhood revitalization program known as "Quiero mi Barrio", their focus has centered on the exploration of impact evaluations, satisfaction surveys, institutional level analysis and citizen participation, amongst others. In other words, these studies regard this program as a rationally based action or technical instrument, an organized set of principles, objectives, concrete measures and coordinated actions. However, there is no research on the conception and formulation of this initiative, which suggests the need to analyze it as a non-rational process of collective action. Based on diverse approaches from the sociology of public action, the genealogical method developed by Foucault, the cognitive and mobility approaches to public policies and the analysis of 26 interviews with key informants and around 100 institutional documents and press releases, this paper examines three program constitutive events -its political process of development, the "social integration" term conceptualizations and the adoption of the neighborhood contract model- which demonstrate that its formulation is not based on rational planning but on a collective-based action process influenced by interests, values and representations where power and the diversity of approaches to an initial idea are fundamental to understand the nature of this initiative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The southern Chilean Andes area and its socialcultural sphere have been affected by migrants who aspire to develop new lifestyles different from that of large cities. Encouraged by the dream of achieving a better life in relatively remote places, they bring utopian projects associated with creative practices. This paper analyzes three community-based initiatives developed by migrants, studies their aspirations, dreams and interests and explores how newcomers develop emotional attachment to their new spaces and create new relationships with local communities. It is argued that these interventions give rise to the emergence of "hybrid places" characterized by the generation of diversified simultaneous understandings. It concludes with a discussion about the importance of studying developed spaces created on the basis of understandings that transcend modern linear and material thinking, suggesting the possibility of creating new social and spatial dimensions different than those imposed by capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a global trend towards the “rediscovery" of urban centers for capital reproduction purposes. Such an exercise involves high levels of private investment for the development of new spaces, services and dwellings aimed at middle and higher-income segments, thus suggesting a close relationship with the financial phase of urban capitalism. In this context, gentrification theory is currently regarded either as an explanation that allows the development of the field of comparative research, based on generic definitions about the process, or through adopting a post-colonial ‘provincial' approach that rejects the very concept of gentrification as a structural narrative that comes from the Global North inapplicable to the Global South. This paper suggests the need to develop an episteme intended to separate factual aspects and explore some key spatial, political, economic and social elements associated with the gentrification phenomenon. Such an exercise is based on the analysis of two cities, Santiago and Mexico City, as well as from an updated theoretical review, referring to other world cities. It is concluded that gentrification processes at planetary level seem to converge and share the same characteristics within a context marked by the greater mobility and aggressiveness of political-financial power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The peri-urban expansion in Santiago, Chile, is related to the development of private satellite towns. The projects developed in the municipality of Lampa deserve some analysis since they shed light on the establishment of emerging middleincome groups in peri-urban areas. Though the process of peri-urbanization of Santiago has been widely studied, the impact of private housing projects on the quality of life of inhabitants remains unclear. Through sixty interviews with inhabitants of Larapinta and Valle Grande, this paper confirms the paradoxical happiness of middle-class peri-urbanites. Such a contradiction emerges from the satisfaction related to the achievement of higher residential standards and the financial vulnerability derived from a lifestyle based on mobility and the availability of private facilities. Far from being a haven of livability, these projects show the vulnerability of middle-income groups with precarious tools to inhabit the private peri-urban sphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]