Abstract

The focus of this paper is the role of local civic participation (activities on behalf of the neighbourhood, involvement in local organizations, membership of neighbourhood groups) to explain social and spatial bonds at a neighbourhood level. We are interested in exploring links between place attachment, place identity, sense of community, and local civic participation. Specifically, we explore the role of local civic participation in social and spatial bonds in places with an on-going participatory urban regeneration process. We selected four neighbourhoods in Valparaiso and one in Illapel (Chile) where a project of urban regeneration called "Quiero mi barrio" (I love my neighbourhood) promoted by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development of Chile was being developed. Scales of place attachment, place identity, sense of community and local civic participation were administered to a sample of 995 people in the two cities. The results show that civic participation is related to social and spatial bonds.