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Sustainability and Territory: An Approach to Shape Development from the Perspective of the Imaginary

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Global Sustainability

Abstract

The study of urban processes and city sustainability proposals is usually based on homogenizing development discourses. Specific socio-cultural features are thus often omitted and, consequently, environmental processes convey relevant interpretative differences in similar ecological situations. In this article, the main subject of analysis is the geohistorical dynamics (according to Braudel 1997) of the city of Concepción, Chile. It incorporates transdisciplinary perspectives that help us understand urban processes and thus explores proposals to sustainably manage this city with a new logic. The starting point is that sustainability proposals do not recognize historical/cultural aspects and are often based on schemes and beliefs that are unrelated to local realities. Such proposals tend to consist of uniform, pre-established development discourses elaborated within politically, culturally, and historically different contexts. Key aspects of this research are the study of development discourse practices, which, when associated with socio-spatial processes, leads to an integrative interpretative analysis. This research argues that transdisciplinary strategies should incorporate natural and social science in the analysis of urban phenomena. These strategies should also focus on the social imaginary and the analysis of narratives and discourses as a significant part of the exploration for new sustainability proposals.

With the support of the National Fund for Scientific and Technological Research of Chile (FONDECYT) projects: 1090248 and 1120306.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    This refers to the influence of CEPAL or the Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, or ECLAC).

  2. 2.

    Throughout history, development has adopted multiple conceptions, ranging from the ideas of evolution and progress to theoretical conceptualizations, such as modernization theory, dependence theory, market-based development, self-centered development, territorial development, regional development, local development, endogenous development, human development, sustainable development, and eco-development (Escobar 1996; Sachs 1981; Gligo 2006).

  3. 3.

    Foucault (1971) proposes three main systems of exclusion that allow for understanding discourses: the forbidden word, the way of sharing (views about) insanity, and the will of truth. In this sense, every discourse responds to a way of organization around these systems of exclusion. Analytically, the discourse on development terms can also be viewed from this perspective.

  4. 4.

    Gramsci’s concept of hegemony focuses on the study of the cultural aspects of society as an element from which one could conduct a political action and as a way to create and reproduce it (Anderson 1976).

  5. 5.

    The city of Concepción refers to the metropolitan area that also includes Talcahuano. Nowadays, the municipalities of Concepción, Talcahuano, Hualpén, Penco, San Pedro de La Paz, and Chiguayante are considered part of this unit, since they define a large, single urban continuum. Other municipalities, such as Coronel, Lota, Tomé, Hualqui, and Santa Juana, are also closely linked to this urban sprawl.

  6. 6.

    According to the industrial census by the National Institute for Statistics (INE) between 1942 and 1971.

  7. 7.

    While what is meant here is the concept of geohistory as proposed by French historian Fernand Braudel (1997), we use it with more subtlety and on a smaller time scale. This enables us to understand a process that, albeit brief (only half a century), has long-term effects on and very significant consequences for the spatial transformations of Latin American economies. These economies were significantly restructured after the shocks experienced in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. These modifications led to the economy becoming strongly dependent on the exploitation of natural resources. This is why such processes’ impacts on transformations and spatial dynamics are so important.

  8. 8.

    In this case, we are inspired by Werlen’s ideas in ‘The subjective standpoint’ included in Society, actions and space (Werlen 1993, 67–68).

  9. 9.

    Historically, Concepción has been subject to natural hazards, including earthquakes, tsunamis, and floods. This established a condition that somehow defined and impregnated a particular way of living, constantly rebuilding and permanently under tension. During the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, earthquakes in 1939, 1960, and 2010 led to catastrophic devastation, as did massive floods in 1899, 1951, 1965, and 2006.

  10. 10.

    The regulatory plans and guidelines of the waterfront planning emphasize how significant these areas are for preservation and conservation purposes.

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  1. Department of Geography, University of Chile, Santiago, Chile

    Enrique Aliste

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  1. Department of Geography, University of Jena, Jena, Germany

    Benno Werlen

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Aliste, E. (2015). Sustainability and Territory: An Approach to Shape Development from the Perspective of the Imaginary. In: Werlen, B. (eds) Global Sustainability. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16477-9_7

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