Genealogy of “quiero mi barrio”, the first chilean neighborhood revitalization program during its initial period of operation 2006-2010

Abstract

Although there has been a number of studies on the first Chilean neighborhood revitalization program known as “Quiero mi Barrio”, their focus has centered on the exploration of impact evaluations, satisfaction surveys, institutional level analysis and citizen participation, amongst others. In other words, these studies regard this program as a rationally based action or technical instrument, an organized set of principles, objectives, concrete measures and coordinated actions. However, there is no research on the conception and formulation of this initiative, which suggests the need to analyze it as a non-rational process of collective action. Based on diverse approaches from the sociology of public action, the genealogical method developed by Foucault, the cognitive and mobility approaches to public policies and the analysis of 26 interviews with key informants and around 100 institutional documents and press releases, this paper examines three program constitutive events -its political process of development, the “social integration” term conceptualizations and the adoption of the neighborhood contract modelwhich demonstrate that its formulation is not based on rational planning but on a collective-based action process influenced by interests, values and representations where power and the diversity of approaches to an initial idea are fundamental to understand the nature of this initiative.