Documents review

Documents review implies secondary research and institutional reports, plans and regulations, official media, policy reports, studies, projects, and statistical data. Newspapers articles are those strictly related to the case and based on reliable sources, specifically the newspapers ‘La Tercera’ and ‘El Mercurio’– both of national circulation – from the 30s onwards as explicit date in which oldest cases appear as interstices in Santiago’s sprawl.

4.3.2 Fieldwork

The research considers fieldwork as a primary source of information to obtain empirical data about Santiago, the southern expansion but mainly selected interstitial spaces. The fieldwork also implies data corroboration and adjustments with theoretical aspects in the light of empirical data.

Selected cases: relevance, scale, relationality

As argued, the ‘multiple study-case approach’ allows collecting enough evidence of different patterns of interstitiality and information to generalise conclusions (Yin, 2009). It suggests a group of cases defined by different functional categories and identified by their relevance, scale and relational character.

100 Identified functional categories include infrastructural, rural, industrial, restricted, agricultural and conurbations zones. The criteria of ‘relevance’ is understood as context dependant considering the understanding of institutional actors. So, in interviews they were asked to identify the most relevant interstices and their values (which one and why). In general, this relevance was determined by the current situation of interstices – values and constraints – and also potentials for suburban transformations. Values were defined by socio-environmental and spatial properties and constraints by degrees of pollution, abandonment, functional obsolescence and informality.

Potentials were determined by location, land capacity and surroundings.

These cases selected are shown in figure 8. They are: 1) the Cerrilos Aiport site at Cerrillos commune, 2) ‘La Platina’ site at La Pintana commune, 3) Campus Antumapu site at La Pintana commune, 4) the gravel pits of La Florida, 5) the so-called ‘Huertos Obreros y Familiares’ [Workers and Familial Orchards] at La Pintana commune, 6) the military airbase ‘El Bosque’ at El Bosque commune and 7) the conurbation zones of Maipú-Padre Hurtado and San Bernardo-Lo Herrera. These two conurbations are understood as a single category in which the difference is that Maipu-Padre Hurtado are two independent communes while San Bernardo-Lo Herrera are two localities within the same communal area.

Figure 8. Santiago’s map of selected cases (author’s map based on Echeñique, 2006)

101 In terms of scale, and as discussed in the theoretical framework, these interstices are understood as metropolitan and regional. Also, their level of integration – spatially, functionally and institutionally – describes different relational degrees. For purposes of analysis, these cases are sorted by scale and relational character, deeply developed in the Chapter 7 including the evidence that illustrate their contents and implications in planning (Table 3).

Table 3. Selected cases (author’s table)

Site visits

This research considers site visits to inspect by first hand spatial and physical aspects of selected cases via direct observation and visual registration. This is assumed as a proper technique of disciplines related to the built environment – such as architecture, urban design, planning and others – to provide a better understanding of existing conditions. This site visits’ approach is based on Rayback’s definition (2016) who posits that

‘site visits’ are necessary for making observations and measurements, and to test if a site meets the study goals. The author also describes different forms of data collection including notes, sketches, photographs, maps or others to determine whether the selected sites contain the necessary phenomena under investigation, and if the data is possible to be collected. It is useful for studies to carry out investigations of multiple sites in order to disclose similarities, to make appropriate comparisons or to determine common patterns and differences (Rayback, 2016).

Site visits are also particularly relevant in this research considering recognised inaccuracies in institutional recorded data. Furthermore, urban projects and interventions are implemented case by case before the existence of political frameworks or regulatory instruments. Also, there are some selected cases in which institutional records are restricted for

102 industrial/commercial purposes. Finally, site visits provide a more ethnographic approach for those cases that still show higher levels of occupation in which inhabitants appear as relevant factors that influence the socio-spatial composition of a place (Clifford, et al., 2016; White and Feiner, 2009; Shelby and Harris, 1985). This is the case for interstices that still host temporary or permanent agricultural, social and recreational uses.

Visual records

In this research, photographs are used as tool for visual records due to their technical accuracy in general and detailed aspects of selected sites. It also offers flexibility of perspectives and mobility to provide specific (and original) views that highlight places’ characteristics and their condition as interstices at human scale. In particular, in this research photographs are used as suggested by Collier and Collier (1986) – as ‘visual evidence’ – and as a way of contrasting maps and written records. It provides gathered data of spatial and physical components of interstices (Collier and Collier, 1986), and highlight socio-spatial specificities to address research questions and objectives (Roberts, 2016). In this case, photographs are used for selected spaces in equal terms, irrespective of their location, size or level of occupation. However, those more restricted cases – such as military or industrial facilities – are complemented by media, public data or visual records provided by institutional actors.

Interviews

The research consisted of 56 semi-structured interviews conducted in Chile in 2014 with a broad range of actors to achieve a wide spectrum of views and information to address research questions and aims. These actors included private, public and third sector actors represented by politicians, policy-makers, technicians, public agencies, planning officials, architects and private consultants, developers and business groups, residents and community groups, socio-environmental organisations and NGOs, all selected for their first-hand knowledge on urban policies and its involvement in the study cases. The interviews were anonymised so that the respondents could be frank, without fear of professional repercussions. It aimed to obtain general and detailed data of Santiago’s suburbanisation and

103 the selected interstices. Interviews’ data was collated with reports, documents and recorded sources to confirm their reliability (Table 4).

Table 4. Informants, interviews and main subjects (author’s table)

The purpose: Semi-structured interviews were used for two primary considerations. First, they are properly suited for exploration of actor’s

104 perceptions and first-hand knowledge about selected interstices, and secondly, they allow adaptations to the variety of professionals, institutions, educational levels and personal stories that preclude the use of more standardised interviews’ schemes. This approach is based on Barriball and While (1994) who argue that potentially varied study cases and actors deserve both flexible schemes of collecting data and structured stages to lead common subjects through differing levels of education, engagement or perception (Barriball and While, 1994).

Furthermore, semi-structured interviews are understood as a central tool in qualitative research and flexible enough to leave space to participants to offer new information regarding the topic, and to address issues not always seen as part of common consensuses, which is the case of several selected interstitial spaces. According to Galletta (2013), semi-structured interviews are particularly instrumental in opening up new possibilities in understanding complex phenomena often accepted as problematic. This flexibility appears as relevant in social sciences considering the array of layers of information and differing interpretations of the same issue, in this case, the interstice (Galletta, 2013).

Procedures: Interviews were conducted in the interviewees’ workplaces or residences. These are assumed as secure places for both the interviewer and interviewee. Interviewees are anonymised to protect their identities considering the subject area supposes possible conflicts of interests or discrete management of information. Additionally, non-elite groups might be exposed to leverage or commercial interests or the other way round, commercial interests of economic actors might be compromised. These issues were presented, evaluated and subject of evaluation from the Ethical Committee of the University that finally approved the ethical aspects of the research (UCL Ethics Project ID Number: 5588/001. Approved 13 March 2014).

The interview process included the discussion of the ‘Consent Form’ and the ‘Research Information Sheet’ – that informed the contents and purposes of the research – timely described and advised beforehand when interviews

105 were arranged and properly signed by all interviewees. The ‘Consent Form’

includes permission to use the information for academic purposes and permission for voice recording.

Interviews were based on a sorted questionnaire designed to address the research questions and content analysis. In some cases, some of the questions were slightly changed to accommodate the interview to the interviewee's profile, subjects and interests, but also to include alternative information. In the same vein, some sub-questions were added to explore deeper in subjects or to clarify information. Depending on informants’

expertise, subjects were varied in hierarchy but always led by research questions and aims. Additionally, and apart from primary information not previously registered or published, interviews disclosed emphasises and understandings about subjects involved, also collated with recorded data.

Because of the context of the research, the set of documents and interviews are originally in Spanish, and then translated into English to be used in quotes, writing and research outputs. The questionnaire and a sample of a translated interview are provided in the Appendixes section of this research.

Adjustments: In accordance to different contextual levels – central, metropolitan, local – and also informant’s profile, interviewees have been sorted in four categories: general informants, specific informants, primary and secondary informants. General informants give broader perspectives, opinions and visions to understand study areas as part of major situations.

As Yin (2009) suggests, general informants provide additional sources of corroboratory or contrary evidence and initiate the access to such sources (Yin, 2009). In this category are former ministers, scholars, politicians, central authorities and policy-makers. Specific informants provide detailed and technical information to address specific subjects of the research and the selected cases. In this group are policy-makers, developers and local planners. Primary informants provide information from their own experience in policy making or related activities. In this group are residents, social organizations, policy-makers and planners, landlords, developers, urban designers and executives inter alia. Finally, secondary informants provide information based on secondary research, indirectly related – not

106 necessarily about cases – that complement the understandings of involved subjects. In this group are social organizations, NGOs and scholars. Some interviewees can hold a double role as general and primary, or a combination of any other.