Abstract

Chilean social housing policy of the eighties and nineties built massive projects of low-quality houses. The territories in which those housing projects were built became a segregated periphery, poor in urban services and accessibility. Over time, multiple social programs have been created, aimed at solving those housing and urban problems. Life in these housing projects has gone from the absence of the State, to its constant presence through several interventions. Through 18 in-depth interviews with inhabitants of these neighborhoods, this article analyzes the way in which constant intervention in the popular periphery generates (i) specific ways of understanding space, and (ii) practices of relationship between its inhabitants and with the State. The results show that the original absence of the State generates both processes of community organization, and problems exceeding inhabitants' capacities. The arrival of the State -although expected- ignores the organization and practices already in place, as well as contributes to the deterioration of territorial identity. The article concludes discussing the role of the State both in the production of deteriorated identities, and in the disarticulation of the community.