A Balanced Urbanization Cycle with traces of Inclusion. Sports Infrastruture Production during the Unidad Popular, 1971-1973

Abstract

This article addresses the ways in which sports policy was applied as part of a housing construction program during Salvador Allende’s government. The role that the State housing corporations and DIGEDER played in reinforcing a policy of space as a social product (an idea somewhat neglected by previous governments) is analyzed from a neo-institutional point of view. The study proposes that the administration during the Unidad Popular developed balanced and inclusive urban planning, incorporating sports infrastructure into new, low-income neighborhoods. To this end, documentation from the CORMU and CORVI collections of the Archivo Nacional de la Administración was used as were the magazines Estadio and Auca and the newspaper El Siglo. Finally, a case study in the city of Antofagasta is researched in greater depth, reviewing the how and
what of construction programs and plans that allowed for the development of an inclusive
urbanization and sports infrastructure.