Cartographies of Conflict: Political Culture and Urban Protest in Santiago, Chile, 1872-1994

In my dissertation, “Cartographies of Conflict: Political Culture and Urban Protest in Santiago, Chile, 1872-1994,” I combine archival research and oral history with elements from critical geography to examine the ways in which shantytown dwellers, Catholic parishes, and political parties collaborated and negotiated to transform Chilean politics and urban space throughout the long twentieth century. I highlight the importance of spatialized thinking in structuring governmental housing policies and dwellers’ innovative responses. I suggest that the spatial aspects of politics provide vital insights into the interplay between subjectivity and state power. My study examines the making and unmaking of physical and social geography in Chile’s capital through my focus on the complex and shifting socio-economic and political terrains of the urban poor. These inquiries, which transcend disciplinary boundaries and demand new analytical approaches, form the basis of my dissertation project and present the possibility for novel perspectives on political subjectivity as it is constituted in and through marginal spaces.