Abstract

October 2019 saw the birth of the largest wave of demonstrations to hit Chile in the last 50 years. Protesters, the length of the country, soon joined in, voicing a broad range of demands and driving what has been described as a true “awakening” at the local level. This local dimension of the protests—that is, the events that took place at the neighborhood level—has been overlooked by recent studies of the conflicts that erupted in major cities across Chile and the nationwide demands that came with them. However, many socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhoods of Santiago became local epicenters of the uprising, witnessing not only intense protest action but also the peaceful congregation of inhabitants. The present work explores the fundamental role of space in the social and political identities of communities and asks how the social uprising developed at the neighborhood level, examining how it changed the relationship between these local spaces and their inhabitants. Based on the analysis of 19 in-depth interviews with young protestors fromdisadvantaged areas of Santiago, results reveal the emergence of a local “awakening.” This phenomenon involved encounters with others in public places, collective uses and resignification of local space, and the combination of national and local demands, arousing in young people territorial bonds and social identity. © 2024 American Psychological Association