Work in Cities
During the first period of CEDEUS (2013-2017) and prior to the creation of the Policy and Practice Unit and the Urban Labs Programme, the Centre’s team of researchers and professionals developed various methodologies and activities aimed at diagnosing and linking research with participatory processes in different territories. To this end, surveys were carried out on conflicts and urban tensions identified by local stakeholders who shape the cities. CEDEUS also supported organisations in various social processes, collected information for the development of research, and shared this data and its results with the different stakeholders in the cities of Valdivia, Copiapó, Temuco-Padre Las Casas, Coquimbo-La Serena and the Metropolitan Areas of Santiago and Concepción.
Urban Panel Discussions: These activities were aimed at identifying research topics through participatory mapping, improving the academic understanding and knowledge of the city-region. The dialogues fostered by the Urban Panel Discussions became the basis for understanding local issues and gathering information on how city dwellers understand sustainable urban development according to their context.
Urban Discussion Panel in Concepción
Urban Discussion Panel in Temuco-Padre Las Casas
Urban Discussion Panel in Valdivia
Concepción Metropolitan Area Executive Report
Temuco-Padre Las Casas Executive Report
La Serena-Coquimbo Executive Report
Santiago Metropolitan Area Executive Report
In the early years of CEDEUS’ work, it was possible not only to develop a line of territorial engagement, but also to innovate in strategies for influencing public policy and supporting urban tensions that are relevant to certain communities and cities. In the Metropolitan Area of Concepción, work was conducted particularly in the following places and activities:
Aurora de Chile Population (2015-2017): Here we carried out activities centred around the construction of the Patricio Aylwin Bridge and the forced displacement of a large part of the population as a result. The work plan was based on activities that would help to make the conflict visible, make a historical reconstruction of the population and collect key information. For this purpose, the Aurora de Chile Citizen Survey and the “La Aurora de los Aurorinos” Collective Mapping were carried out, the “From Aurora Building Memory and City” Heritage Route was created, and the “Shared Vision of Neighbourhood and City” workshops were designed and executed. The results of this process were included in the document “Bases for an integral urban plan for the Aurora de Chile population,” which was presented to the authorities at a ceremony in the same town.
Bases for a Comprehensive Urban Plan for the Aurora de Chile Population
Bellavista Oveja-Tomé Factory (2015-2016): Faced with the threat of being demolished and replaced by a housing project, the community—organised around the heritage of Tomé—requested the technical and methodological support of CEDEUS, with the aim of protecting and preserving the Bellavista Oveja-Tomé Factory as a national historical monument due to the importance it holds for the municipality and the country. Together with the neighbours grouped in the Citizens’ Roundtable for the Heritage of Tomé, a planning process was designed to carry out various activities, such as the implementation of participatory mapping and interviews to identify threats to the community’s heritage, and the development of the discussion panel “Past, Present and Future of the Bellavista Neighbourhood.” Subsequently, a workshop was held with university students on the design of the neighbourhood and the social organisation was supported during the process. After the factory was declared a National Historical Monument, they generated initial ideas for its use.
Bellavista Tomé Vision for the Future Proposal
Los Batros Wetland (2015-2017): As a result of the problems caused by the urbanisation of wetlands in Metropolitan Concepción, CEDEUS took on the role of scientific dissemination and data collection around the Los Batros wetland. The centre participated in several activities, notably in two socio-environmental seminars organised by the Municipality and in the First Seminar on Urbanisation in Wetlands (Urbancost-CEDEUS), which contributed to the creation of the book “Urbanización en Humedal Los Batros” (Urbanisation in Los Batros Wetland).
As a result of these spaces for dissemination and collaboration, the Wetlands Roundtable was created, made up of the municipalities of Concepción, Coronel, Hualpén, Lota, Penco, San Pedro de la Paz and Talcahuano, in which CEDEUS also actively participated. FONDECYT Urbancost (https://www.urbancost.cl). Through this roundtable, the signing of the Protocol for the Protection and Valorisation of Urban Wetlands in the Metropolitan Area of Concepción was achieved, where CEDEUS acted as the sponsoring institution of the commitment within the framework of the scientific project.
Urbanization in Los Batros wetland
Pedro del Río Population (2018): The work of CEDEUS in the Costanera area of the north bank of the Biobío River continued, motivated by a group of neighbours from the Pedro del Río Zañartu population, who expressed concern about a public infrastructure project adjacent to the area: the underground burying of the railway line. In response to this, planning was undertaken to collect information on concerns and frame them as an analysis of potential impacts for the Environmental Impact Assessment of the project in question. To this end, presentations with technical elements, field visits, participatory mapping and workshops were developed, rescuing the perspective of the neighbours of the population, with the technical-professional guidance of CEDEUS and the participation of other students and professionals from Universidad de Concepción.
Potential Environmental and Territorial Impacts of the underground burying project
Pedro del Río Zañartu Environmental Assessment Study Infographic
