The persistence of segregation and inequality in socially diverse neighborhoods: A case study in La Florida, Santiago

Abstract

There has been increasing discussion about socially mixed neighborhoods, in order to reverse the additional social problems that concentrated poverty supposedly produces. Those studies highlight the positive aspects of the proximity between gated communities and social housing, but they have overestimated symbolic changes over more critical problems of persistent segregation and inequality. Based on a multi-dimensional perspective of socio-spatial integration, a case study in La Florida (Santiago, Chile) is presented: a neighborhood with a history of land squatters, social housing projects, and recently, new middle and upper-middle class population. The case shows how complex has been this coexistence, and how segregation has been moving from housing to other spheres of socialization. The need for an institutional and critical vision on social mix, neighborhood effects and territorial resource redistribution is stressed.