Abstract

The discussion on producing urban peripheries in Chile has focused on the capital. An under-standing of this process is proposed for San Pedro de la Paz, a city in the Metropolitan Area of Concepcion in the country's south. The hypothesis is that housing policy has been the most relevant actor in producing peripheral urbanisms. It is a territory where center-periphery relations are hybrid and strongly influenced by the relationship built with the landscape and nature. The methodology combined geographical analysis of land cover and use, documentary and normative analysis, and observation of different social housing complexes built at differ-ent times. The results show how the territory has historically been shaped as a peripheral and suburban area, which is consolidated by the action of the State, producing a diffuse space dominated by the values promoted by the middle classes.