Significados del espacio público en contextos de transformación por desastres socionaturales

Abstract

Socio-natural disasters and reconstruction raise awareness of the built environment and generate narratives among the dwellers of affected communities. This is a process that combines different spatial meanings which, as in the case of major discourses on public space, is based on the signification given to the urban space and the conditioning of appropriation practices. This research analyzes the narrations provided by the victims of three socio-natural disasters that have affected Chile in recent years: the 2007 Tocopilla earthquake, the eruption of Chaiten in 2008 and the 2010 Maule earthquake and tsunami. In order to compile the meanings given to the public space by those who have experienced urban transformation processes as the consequence of displacement or post-disaster reconstruction, this research conducted 17 focus groups with 117 inhabitants from Chaiten, Constitucion, Dichato and Tocopilla. From a qualitative perspective, this contribution analyzes the narrations that establish a relationship among the different approaches to the public space: the public space as a lost place, the public space as an agent of civility and as the place to attain social justice.