Appropriation and social control in a Santiago shopping center: socio-spatial practices and teenagers significations

Authors

  • Miguel Pérez Universidad de California, Berkeley, CA
  • Rodrigo Salcedo Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago
  • Gonzalo Cáceres Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.4067/S0250-71612012000100003

Keywords:

consumption, urban culture, public space, urban sociology

Abstract

Intellectual critique, both from North and Latin America, has described malls asÍ tightly controlled, socially homogeneous private spaces that are indiferent to their urban context.In Chile, this also implied a critique of the neoliberal model established during the dictatorship,which however, did not deny the mallÍ€™s success among citizens. In this article, through a qualitativeÍ and ethnographical analysis of practices and signifcations of teenagers in the Plaza Vespucio Mall,Í we will discuss some of the most common discourses of the intellectual critique by asserting that forÍ adolescents: (i) the mall, rather than being enclosed and indiferent to the larger urban context,Í is part of a system including diferent types of spaces; (ii) the private / public; inside / outsideÍ distinctions are not relevant; and (iii) the level of social control in the mall is tolerated insofar asÍ practices of adaptation and emerging resistance.

Published

2012-01-02

How to Cite

Pérez, M., Salcedo, R., & Cáceres, G. (2012). Appropriation and social control in a Santiago shopping center: socio-spatial practices and teenagers significations. Revista EURE - Revista De Estudios Urbano Regionales, 38(113). https://doi.org/10.4067/S0250-71612012000100003

Issue

Section

Articles