Mobile Borders in Urban Daily Mobility Practices in Santiago de Chile

Abstract

In cities today, the possibility of being confined is not only applicable to fixed areas, like work or home, but it may also occur while moving. This is because high levels of mobility, long distances, and extended hours of daily travel, along with monotonous and difficult mobility experiences may lead some to ‘‘miss’’ the city, in a tunnel-like manner. In the context of urban daily mobility practices, this paper argues that although the possibility for expanding places by daily mobility exists, increasingly urban experiences in cities like Santiago de Chile, involve a simultaneous tunneling or confining effect, reducing the possibilities of encounter and interaction, which are the essence of urban experience. Using an ethnographic approach to urban daily mobility practices in Santiago de Chile, this paper discusses how mobility relates to place making and to urban inequality and then analyzes the way place enlargement and confinement occur.