SPACE AND POLITICAL PARTICIPATION IN POPULAR NEIGHBORHOODS : Insights from the Chilean Urban Uprising

In this article we examine how space shapes the political dispositions of residents in marginalized neighborhoods and gave form to institutional and contentious participation during the 2019 urban uprising in Chile. Based on qualitative research in two neighborhoods on Santiago's outskirts, we reconstruct residents’ engagement with politics prior to and during the urban uprising. We use Lefebvre's relational concept of space in dialogue with Bourdieu's theory of habitus to understand how space (perceived, conceived, lived) interacts with individual resources, mainly cultural capital. This interaction shows that participation strategies during the revolt stemmed from political dispositions developed over time, having been shaped by the diverse and conflicting ways residents perceive, conceive, and live space. These strategies are also influenced by what Bourdieu terms residents’ ‘volume of capital’. Based on their political dispositions, residents of popular neighborhoods display a varied repertoire of political strategies. These strategies include institutional, collaborative, and oppositional participation, with the aim of resolving their daily material needs, affecting national politics, and challenging the neighborhood's reputation within the city's imagination.