Abstract

© 2019, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana. All rights reserved.Up to 1973 the neighborhood power in Chile showed a growing process of social organization and articulation that was gathered in the Neighbors Board Act in 1968. This historic process of neighborhood empowerment was abruptly interrupted due to the coup d’état in 1973. The post-dictatorship era did not mean a re-articulation of the neighborhood power. Instead, the collective faculty to discuss and modify the neoliberal urban agenda was further undermined. Nonetheless, a scenario favorable to the public discussion about the neighborhood issues and their role in building the right to the city and democracy is nowadays evinced. In this context –and analyzing experiences of reshaping the frameworks for the neighborhood collective action– this article proposes that, as the neighborhood space is a key political arena for the production of the urban, reconstituting the neighborhood influencing power can contribute to institute new ways of relations between citizens and urban policies.