The Chilean intermediate city as a resilient urban environment to deindustrialization. The case of Valdivia

Abstract

This paper addresses the capacities that cities of intermediate scale present as resilient urban environments, supporting the socio-spatial processes derived from deindustrialization in a relevant manner, using the Chilean city of Valdivia as a paradigmatic example. The suitability of these intermediate-scale urban environments as the only intermediary nexus between larger-scale metropolitan spaces and rural areas, makes them essential elements in the definition of the new Chilean territorial panorama and, therefore, ideal enclaves for regeneration and revitalization both locally and globally. Likewise, the attention placed on Valdivian economic and social transformations and dynamics in recent decades, positions the case study as a benchmark in adapting to territorial, economic and socio-spatial transformations after deindustrialization.