The COVID-19 Crisis in Chile: Analysis of the Transformations in the Social Fabric of the Neighborhoods of Greater Santiago

Abstract

In Chile, early messages relative to the health crisis focused on individual self-care, but the spatial spread of contagion disclosed serious problems in the city spatial configuration. The new uses assigned to neighborhoods and homes brought to the fore, on the one hand, pre-pandemic socio-spatial inequalities and, on the other hand, the peculiarities specific to neighbourhoods and homes within the broader urban canvas, especially with respect to equipment, accessibility and identity. Using data from an EPDUS survey conducted before and after the COVID-19 crisis, this work describes the socioterritorial conditions, changes in spatial uses and practices, the role of social ties and the role of the neighborhood as a scale of containment and mutual support before the pandemic. The conclusion shows us that different neighborhood typologies in the metropolitan area of Santiago configure unequal spaces that determine the possibility of building social bonds of support, collaboration and care in crises such as the one triggered by the COVID-19.