Social Mobility over Time and in Space: Ascending Residential and Social Trajectories

This chapter examines the ways in which Santiago’s barrio alto has grown over the past decades, leading to high levels of social segregation of the most privileged. The offer of housing for the upper middle classes, and upward occupational mobility, has raised expectations of belonging to this class. Social and spatial mobility into and within the barrio alto is not, however, a random happenstance. It is structured along lines delineating less and more privileged places, trajectories, and settings. In this chapter, we explore various types of socio-spatial trajectories of our upper middle class interviewees, which demonstrate the imbricated relationships between intergenerational, occupational, and residential trajectories. Nevertheless, living and staying in the barrio alto is not a trivial matter even for the more privileged. Many actively struggle to be there, at the apex of the Chilean social pyramid.