Nuevas y antiguas identidades regionales: conflicto, exclusión e hibridaje. El caso de la región del Maule

Abstract

This article reflects on the processes of region building, considering the case of the Maule region in Chile. Drawing upon the categories of old and new regions, as well as functional and deep identities (Passi, 2011; Terlouw, 2011), the territorial effects related to the Chilean process of regionalization, started in the 1970s are reviewed. Using different sources of information, the inequalities generated in the territory by this process are shown, conceptualized as the constitution of the new region, based in the two main cities of the region; and the precarization of the old region, represented by the old provinces. The first region is developed at the expense of the second one. Despite these differences, two hybridations are observed; the new region includes the old one, and vice versa. It is concluded that the management of this dichotomy is key to the processes of regional development.