Geographic isolation: stress or opportunity for territories ? Cross-perspectives through chilean Patagonia

Peuziat Ingrid, Brigand L., Arenas F., Núñez A., Salazar A.

Abstract

The 11th region (Aysen del General Carlos Ibañez del Campo) is in Chile a space in a relative geographical isolation : the traditional communications (roads, airports) are little developed and in structuralization. The modern communication tools (telephone, internet) are still in the embryonic state. In this context, the isolation is lived as a major constraint the effects of which affect all the fields of the economic, social and environmental reality. The current population is concentrated essentially in some urban poles which gather 80 % of the population. The remaining 20 % live in even more remote areas, mountain valleys and islands. The isolation in these sites is even more obvious. The inhabitants develop, there, activities connected essentially to fishing and to extensive breeding. At stakes for these populations are the vital questions of the preservation of their activities and the recognition of their specificities, which certainly depend on a regional recognition and new means of communications.The subject of this research is to study the question of the isolation in the most geographically remote sectors (fjords, islands and mountain valleys) through the analysis of the perception of these remote population and public and political actors in Aysen. The study analyzes the assets and constraints associated with remoteness, and concludes on the stakes and perspectives of these peripheral areas and their population.

Más información

Título de la Revista: Norois, Revue Géographique des Universités de L’Ouest
Número: 225
Página de inicio: 47
Página final: 59
Notas: NOROIS