Is residential integration possible in Chilean cities? High and middle groups disposition towards integration with popular groups

Abstract

With relative independence of their social level, age or sex, the residents of the Chilean cities of Santiago, Antofagasta and Temuco show a significant disposition to residential integration with people of different social conditions. However, this positive evaluation of integration is confronted by concrete obstacles and fears (like the possible damage to the value of their properties or to the education of their children) that make the materialization of less segregated neighborhoods harder, on the one hand, and "classist" attitudes and conducts, on the other. In practical terms, this ambivalent urban culture, together with a relative assymetry of residential segregation are the main dimensions in the Latin American context. These, together with a mixture of indifference and tolerance towards the "other", which are characteristic of modern cities, give cultural viability to future policies for the reduction of segregation.

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