Abstract

In this paper a brief account of the evolution of residential segregation in Chile is followed by a description of how this is affected by public policies. To better understand the ongoing process, we interviewed a sample of old and recently arrived inhabitants in three sectors of downtown Santiago de Chile. Aspects such as socioeconomic status, educational level, previous residence and tenure were recorded along with differences between families living in newly built highrise or traditional low-rise dwellings. The idea was to identify the ‘new’ and ‘original’ inhabitants of the downtown area and to analyze the spatial distribution of their social and domestic activities. This was then contrasted with the spatial characteristics of these areas, focusing on spatial perceptions of neighbourhood boundaries. Results show that new inhabitants differ from the original inhabitants in many ways – they have a higher socioeconomic level, are younger and live in smaller households. They also differ in terms of the places where they carry out their everyday activities and occasional celebrations. In contrast, shopping patterns are very similar between all types of inhabitants and neighbourhoods. In addition, the spatial analysis shows that the mental representation of neighbourhoods collected through maps drawn by the respondents could be associated with some spatial properties of the urban grid. Our final discussion stresses the important role that city centres, and particularly public space and urban services can fulfil in spatially segregated Latin American cities.