Public space and social encounter

Neighborhood sociability in densified neighborhoods of Santiago de Chile

Abstract

Although in recent years the concept of urban vitality has experienced an important revival, many works do not address a central theme of Jane Jacob's work: a greater daily use of public space, related to certain attributes of the built environment, implies an increase in social interactions at street level, enhancing the sense of community and belonging of the inhabitant with his neighborhood. Idea that has been adopted by studies on urban sociability based on the concept of public familiarity. The purpose of this paper is to propose a conceptual framework based on the above concepts to investigate the impacts of the densification of the central area of Santiago de Chile on the patterns of neighborhood sociability of its inhabitants, in order to understand how a mode of urban development that prioritizes the profit maximization of private developers ends up impacting the public social life of the inhabitants.