Abstract

This study examines the role of urban deterioration in the production of internal peripheries within central heritage contexts, taking the Puerto de Valparaiso sector as a case study. Through a mixed-methods approach that combines spatially referenced interviews and on-site surveys, the research analyzes residents' perceptions, practices, and experiences regarding deteriorated spaces. The findings show that urban deterioration cannot be understood solely as physical obsolescence, but rather as a socially produced process that articulates material, symbolic, and psychosocial dimensions. Within this framework, evidence of internal peripheralization emerges, where the sector's geographical centrality contrasts with its functional, symbolic, and emotional exclusion. Deterioration operates as a mechanism of symbolic dispossession, generating an ambivalent experience in which identity attachment coexists with disaffection and insecurity. At the same time, horizons of re-signification emerge from community expectations of recovery and collective uses of degraded spaces. The study concludes that urban revitalization and heritage policies must incorporate residents' subjective and psychosocial experiences, advancing toward a framework of spatial justice.