Población y territorio en el modelo económico chileno. El caso de la comarca del Aconcagua

Abstract

Chile has been and remains an essentially agro-mining economy where the territorial configuration is directly determined by the possibilities of extracting rents of land, climate and the mountains. In this text we document how the productive matrix is reproduced in the territories under the forms of an economic and social differentiation. For this we take as a case study the region of Aconcagua, in the region of Valparaiso. It is a micro-region whose economic dynamics is based on the two pillars of the new Chilean economy: the agro-export boom and copper mining. This gives rise to an essentially extractive productive matrix, differentiating territories and basis of social and economic inequality of the population. Using data from the National Socioeconomic Characterization Survey (CASEN), we documented how the polarization of the productive matrix results in a social and territorial inequality, at least with respect to the distribution of income and wages of the population. The lower income levels prevailing in most of the municipalities in the region, is a direct consequence of the type of prevailing economic and productive activity in them and relate mainly to agriculture, agribusiness and trade