Challenged tactical urbanism in Santiago de Chile, a neoliberal city

Abstract

Santiago de Chile is a world showcase for being framed under a pure neoliberal model implemented after a coup during a totalitarian regime. Despite its promises for a prosperous future, the city presents strong contrasts mainly understood as the neoliberal secondary effects, such as intense segregation, extreme real estate speculation, and a private sector that tends to be more influential than the local institutions, adopting profit-oriented decisions neglecting public interest. The Chilean social outbreaks in 2019 highlighted the voices of those living in the negative parallel reality, claiming the right to the city and the systematic integration of social matters. In this context, tactical urbanism emerges as a transitional way to create optimal democratic urban projects based on citizen work and embracing sustainable values that contrast with the neoliberal background. The city frame is hostile to such alternative realities. Hence, groups of citizens, NGOs and other actors manage to implement new human-centred values that finish to re-orientate the status quo. Finally, the study underlines how a citizen-based perspective considering the local scale is essential to be included in urban planning to generate livability and contribute to urban wellbeing.