Abstract

During the last decade, the issue of citizen participation has become a key feature of political discussion and public opinion in Chile and elsewhere. New social and political movements emerge and protest in public spaces to demand changes in such varied themes as constitutional arrangements, democracy and human rights, public education and health, environmental issues or the control of corporate power over citizens and political authorities. Both this local condition and the global context of a growing concern about participatory processes from architects, designers, advocacy and grassroots organizations, raise an interest to discuss the relations between architecture, design, the city and the political from new views. This conference aims to frame new discussions on these matters, besides and beyond well-known ties between architecture, design, power and bureaucracy or the struggles for the right to the city or housing. Our goal is to go further and deeper into the political rationales within project processes, and to visualize the extents to which design thinking may contribute to different approaches to the problems of the city, dealing both with imagination and political elements.