URBAN IMAGINARIES AS A MECHANISM OF DEPOLITICIZATION. THE FRAGMENTED CITY

Functioning, emergence and history of the imaginaries of urban fragmentation

Abstract

Urban imaginaries qualify the space and produce cognitive maps that allow people to orient themselves in the complex framework of the city and position themselves with respect to the different groups that inhabit it. They also prescribe which spaces belong to the city and which actions can be carried out in them. Urban imaginaries normalize urban practices and spatial production. They work as biopolitical devices of governance, whose purpose is the depoliticization of urban space and the expropriation of spatial commons. Urban imaginaries of fragmentation generate differentiated cognitive maps for each group, disconnecting spatial conceptions and the demands of the global urban structure, preventing the creation of autonomous frameworks for action. Since its origins, the urban planning has fragmented the city, favouring the interests of the dominant classes and producing these imaginaries. This research studies its mechanisms and the history of its construction.