Last Tuesday, April 23, we attended the conference “The City We Want”, organized by the Chilean Chamber of Construction. We would like to highlight the presentation made by the psychologist, given the critical vision of the speaker regarding citizen participation, as it is understood today in the processes of city construction. It should be noted, in the first instance, that the participation of the organized community on urban issues has been boosted by Law 20.500 “on associations and citizen participation”, enacted in 2011 and from which a number of functional community organizations have emerged and have accessed management tools and competitive funds. This has empowered civil organizations, giving rise to natural leaders who have been able to influence the discussion on land use planning and also to promote the progress or setback of projects of different scales. Valdivieso’s view takes up the “fictions and limits for the social construction of the city” in the light of the debate on “the city we want”. He refers to the importance of understanding that citizen participation is “an act of trust, regarding the retribution that will be obtained”, which (distribution and coordination of tasks). Valdivieso appeals in his paper to “”. Citizen Participation is an invitation on a par with the exercise of the right to “participate”. To achieve this, the psychologist proposes to move from pseudo-representativeness to the recognition of diversity; from infallibility to technical and scientific weighting. As a country we have established the bases to advance in the social construction of the city. However, we agree that the next step is to find the working formulas that allow us to recognize the interdependence that exists among all the actors and thus reach agreements that, although as Valdivieso points out, will always be transitory and partial, will allow the social construction of the city. Because . Any urban proposal must begin by recognizing this interdependence, which is vital for the process of social construction of the city. Community Relations Coordinator
