Movilidad femenina: los reveses de la utopía socio-espacial en las poblaciones de Santiago de Chile

Abstract

Daily displacement is one of the main activities of women in the poor neighborhoods of Latin American cities. Their female status makes heavy demands of them in connection with household support,, accompaniment, maintenance of family relationships and neighborhood social networks, etc. They are consequently obliged to make countless trips both inside and outside their neighborhoods. Through an analysis of the daily travel routines of women in Santa Julia, a poor neighborhood in Santiago, this article shows how the urban design of the political project of “popular promotion” has turned out to be a double-edged weapon. These women’s habitual pathways are being threatened by public space today, a situation which reignites the old debate on whether urban design by itself can transform society.