Abstract

Few studies on large Latin American cities have addressed socio-environmental conflictive in its non-exceptional dimension, that is, in its everyday or banal dimension. This article analyzes which are the banal environmental problems, where they are reported, and what is the relationship between complaints and urban territories, in terms of socioeconomic level, density, and types of land occupation. The analysis is based on a database of environmental citizen complaints reported to the Superintendence of the Environmental and to the municipalities of the Metropolitan Region of Santiago, among which three communes —Independencia, Lo Barnechea and San Bernardo— are examined in detail. The municipal data were then georeferenced and statistically and spatially analyzed. The research shows that mixed residential sectors with high density are those that concentrate more complaints, mainly about noise. From the nature of the environmental claims and the spatial analysis of this database, we reflect about a new geography of urban conflict in its banal dimension, and its meaning in terms of citizen constructions of the environment in different territories of the city.