The trash war of Santiago: from the right to housing to the right to the city

Abstract

Based on a case study, the paper discusses collective political initiatives on the part of popular groups in Santiago, Chile, and makes a comparison with the mythical "pobladores movement" of the sixties Í€“pobladores being the name given in Chile to low-class settlers of the urban periphery. Current mobilizations show up as being reactive, geared at practical goals, inspired by conservatism (the defense of what exists or is possessed) and loaded with cynicism towards political parties and the political system. Nevertheless, and paradoxically enough, these collective endeavors may comprise democratic traits which the pobladores movement, crossed as it was by the clientelist logics put forward by political parties, lacked off. Current popular initiatives could even include social change potential to a great extent unsuspected.