Socio-spatial segregation in Montevideo. “Give places their place”: topological cartographies in the city

Abstract

The purpose of this text is to connect two elements that frequently appear to be disconnected in urban studies: the social and the spatial. In order to link these two elements, the city’s representations — arising from its neighborhoods, a paradigmatic unit in urban studies— must articulate ways of representing the society located within. This adds complexity to the usual socio-spatial segregation measures by incorporating the implicit symbolic dimension, which is associated to the forms of representing the city and the attributes through which the neighbourhoods’ “distinctions” are enacted. These, in turn, respond to social and not merely spatial relationships. Topological cartographies are configurations that condense social and spatial representations of the city. They are specified according to the social and structural position in which the individuals are located. The discussions about the city of Montevideo arising from nine groups were used as empirical material. The analytical procedure topologizes both the urban and the social symbolic space, thus allowing the mapping of both the neighbourhoods (as territories) and the attributes assigned to them. This enabled the definition of both proximity and distances, that is, the criteria of distinction from which they approach, bring together or separate, the neighbourhoods as mentioned in the discussion groups.