Abstract

Since the 1990s, the Santa Isabel neighborhood in Santiago, Chile, has undergone a radical process of urban growth and densification which can be associated with the neoliberal turn that characterized public policies and urban growth since the 1980s. This global process of "urban neoliberalism" is characterized by the relevance that the private sector acquires in urban development of the cities, maximizing profitability over other considerations. The following article seeks to study the consequences of this type of neoliberal urban development in urban morphology on a neighborhood scale, as well as in the way in which the inhabitants relate to each other and with their territory. Through a multi-methodological approach, integrating census data, urban morphology indicators, survey results, field observations and in-depth interviews, it seeks to understand how this type of urban development that encourages the maximization of profits by private parties, affects the public dimension of urban space. It is identified that the characteristics of the built environment, added to its new sociodemographic composition, inhibit the use of the neighborhood, neighborhood sociability and the permanence of its inhabitants, contributing to generate a transitory neighborhood, which is transforming the own condition of the city.