Vivienda social y subjetivación urbana en Santiago de Chile: Espacio privado, repliegue presentista y añoranza

Abstract

Housing policy in Chile has been one of the main routes to "overcome poverty" ever since the return to democracy and have transformed the face of the city both in material and social terms. This research investigated processes of subjectivism of dwellers which underwent the transition from camp to social housing in different neighborhoods of Santiago, a process marked by the emergence of new forms of marginality and fragmentation. Based on an exploratory/comprehensive design and following a qualitative methodology, we analyzed the biographical narratives of twenty social housing dwellers from poor communes of Santiago, who were beneficiaries of the housing policy between the years 2000 and 2009. Results reveal a privatization process in the struggle for housing, followed by an oscillation between the joy of having intimacy and the nostalgia of a less fearful relationship with a mutating identity. We note that this process settles in in the midst of an ethical and political regime that exaggerates the visibility of individual capabilities and eclipses the social and political space that produce their condition, leading dwellers to develop a kind of citizenship that promotes private consumption, thus preserving social fragmentation processes.