Abstract

This paper presents results of a research carried out at Santiago, Chile financed by the National Fund for Scientific and Technological Development grant, Fondecyt 1095083. It addresses the question of how urban identities have been constructed in our segregated city in the twenty-first century. The cases of urban territories and their identities are analyzed as giving witness of the coexistence of both a proper city and a barbarian city within the confines of Santiago. It is argued that just as the identities of the proper city expresses the desire and the aesthetic of order, control and hygiene, there is a space at “the back of the shop”, in the “barbarian city”, where urban identities produce a heterogeneous way of living, and multicultural life style. This argument presents a coexistence of identities that is making up today´s urban question today.