Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Social Mobility over Time and in Space: Ascending Residential and Social Trajectories

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Upper Middle Class Social Reproduction

  • 270 Accesses

Abstract

This chapter examines the ways in which Santiago’s barrio alto has grown over the past decades, leading to high levels of social segregation of the most privileged. The offer of housing for the upper middle classes, and upward occupational mobility, has raised expectations of belonging to this class. Social and spatial mobility into and within the barrio alto is not, however, a random happenstance. It is structured along lines delineating less and more privileged places, trajectories, and settings. In this chapter, we explore various types of socio-spatial trajectories of our upper middle class interviewees, which demonstrate the imbricated relationships between intergenerational, occupational, and residential trajectories. Nevertheless, living and staying in the barrio alto is not a trivial matter even for the more privileged. Many actively struggle to be there, at the apex of the Chilean social pyramid.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
eBook
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 59.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Or the occupation of the main wage-earner in the family.

References

  • Andreotti, A., Le Gales, P., & Moreno-Fuentes, F. (2015). Globalised Minds, Roots in the City: Urban Upper-Middle Classes in Europe. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Angelcos, N., & Méndez, M. L. (2017). Struggles Against Territorial Disqualification. Mobilization for Dignified Housing and Defense of Heritage in Santiago. Latin American Perspectives, 44(3), 100–112.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Atkinson, A. (2015). Inequality: What Can Be Done. London: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barozet, E., & Fierro, J. (2011). Clase media en Chile, 1990–2011: algunas implicancias sociales y políticas. Chile: Fundación Konrad Adenauer Stiftung.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chauvel, L., & Hartung, A. (2016). Malaise in the Western Middle Classes. In UNESCO, World Social Science Report 2016. Challenging Inequalities: Pathways to a Just World. Paris: UNESCO.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clausen, S.-E. (1998). Applied Correspondence Analysis. An Introduction. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Ducci, M. E. (2000). Santiago: territorios, anhelos y temores. Efectos sociales y espaciales de la expansión urbana. EURE—Revista De Estudios Urbano Regionales, 26(79), 5–24.

    Google Scholar 

  • Espinoza, V., Barozet, E., & Méndez, M. (2013). Estratificación y movilidad social bajo un modelo neoliberal maduro: el caso de Chile. Revista Lavboratorio, 25(14), 169–192.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gamsu, S. (2016). Moving Up and Moving Out: The Re-Location of Elite and Middle-Class Schools from Central London to the Suburbs. Urban Studies, 53(14), 2921–2938.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gárate, M. (2012). La Revolución Capitalista de Chile (1973–2003). Santiago: Ediciones Alberto Hurtado.

    Google Scholar 

  • Garretón, M. (2017). City Profile: Actually Existing Neoliberalism in Greater Santiago. Cities, 65, 32–50.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gayo, M. (2017). Desigualdad, ¿existe alguna posibilidad de conseguir niveles de igualdad aceptables? revista Periférica, 18, 65–76.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harvey, D. (2003). The New Imperialism. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harvey, D. (2005). A Brief Story of Neoliberalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hidalgo, R. (2007). ¿Se acabó el suelo en la gran ciudad? Las nuevas periferias metropolitanas de la vivienda social en Santiago de Chile. EURE. Revista Latinoamericana de Estudios Urbano Regionales, Santiago de Chile, 33(98), 57–75.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hidalgo, R., & Janoschka, M. (2014). La ciudad neoliberal. Gentrificación y exclusión en Santiago de Chile, Buenos Aires, Ciudad de México y Madrid. Santiago de Chile: Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile: Serie Geolibros No 19.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mac-Clure, O., Barozet, E., & Maturana, V. (2014). Desigualdad, clase media y territorio en Chile: ¿clase media global o múltiples mesocracias según territorios? EURE—Revista de Estudios Urbano Regionales (Santiago), 40(121), 163–183.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • De Mattos, C. (2007). Globalización, negocios inmobiliarios y transformación urbana. Nueva Sociedad, 212, 82–96.

    Google Scholar 

  • Peck, J., Theodore, N., & Brenner, N. (2009). Neoliberal Urbanism: Models, Moments, Mutations. SAIS Review, 29(1), 49–66.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Piketty, T. (2014). Capital in the Twenty-First Century. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Poulantzas, N. (2000). Poder político y clases sociales en el estado capitalista. México, DF: Siglo XXI.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rodríguez, A., Saborido, M., & Segovia, O. (2012). Violencias en una ciudad neoliberal: Santiago de Chile. Santiago de Chile: Ediciones SUR.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sabatini, F. (2000). Reforma de los mercados de suelo en Santiago, Chile: efectos sobre los precios de la tierra y la segregación residencial. EURE Revista de Estudios Urbano Regionales, 23(77), 49–80.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sabatini, F., & Brain, I. (2008). La segregación, los guetos y la integración social urbana: mitos y claves. EURE—Revista de Estudios Regionales, 34(103), 5–26.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sabatini, F., Cáceres, G., & Cerda, J. (2001). Segregación residencial en las principales ciudades chilenas: tendencias de las tres últimas décadas y posibles cursos de acción. EURE—Revista De Estudios Urbano Regionales, 27(82), 27–42.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stiglitz, J. (2012). The Price of Inequality: How Today’s Divided Society Endangers Our Future. New York and London: W. W. Norton & Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • UNDP. (2017). Desiguales. Orígenes, cambios y desafíos de la brecha social en Chile. Santiago de Chile: Programa de las Naciones Unidas para el Desarrollo.

    Google Scholar 

  • Veltmeyer, H., Petras, J., & Vieux, S. (1997). Neoliberalism and Class Conflict in Latin America: A Comparative Perspective on the Political Economy of Structural Adjustment. New York: St Martin’s Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Wright, E. O. (2000). Class Counts: Comparative Studies in Class Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Diego Portales University, Santiago, Chile

    María Luisa Méndez & Modesto Gayo

Authors
  1. María Luisa Méndez
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Modesto Gayo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Méndez, M.L., Gayo, M. (2019). Social Mobility over Time and in Space: Ascending Residential and Social Trajectories. In: Upper Middle Class Social Reproduction. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-89695-3_2

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-89695-3_2

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-89694-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-89695-3

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation