Construction and appropriation of urban territory by communities: development of the citizen movement around the defense of heritage neighborhoods in Santiago, Chile.

Abstract

The heritage neighborhood appears linked to discourses of resistance to urban transformations, emerging a movement that advocates the construction of heritage from communities, in a narrow vision with identities and ways of life that challenge both the neoliberal configuration of the city and the proposed conception of heritage by the institutionality. The objective of this article is to understand the development and the logic actions of the movement made up of citizen organizations linked to the defense of heritage neighborhoods in Greater Santiago, investigating both the actions and strategies carried out to redefine their neighborhoods and their articulation for the vindication of the heritage as an element of urban development. A qualitative approach with a descriptive scope was made to the cases of three citizen organizations linked to the protection of heritage neighborhoods.