Abstract

Campamentos (informal settlements) are usually observed as units, islands within cities and located places of urban exclusion. This vision sets urban informality as enclaves. The campamentos in Alto Hospicio (North of Chile), which have played a central role in the development of the city, stress this static vision. Observing on experiences of residential mobilities of its inhabitants, we develop a relational perspective, which proposes to unveil how the campamento is produced by a set of interdependent relations with the city. Informality, vulnerability, and precariousness expand beyond the campamento "object". Three family stories are presented that contribute to develop a more situated analysis of the relationship between campamento and urban space, as well as to understand the development of a city of accelerated growth and vibrant transformation such as Alto Hospicio. The paper argues that the case of Alto Hospicio invites us to rethink the concept and treatment of urban informality beyond the campamentos, promoting the opening of new theoretical and empirical questions in Chilean urban studies to fully understand the experiences in which people build their place in the city under the current urban development (neoliberal) model.