THE CITY AS AN ICONIC SOURCE OF MEANING: APPROACHES FROM THE GEGRAPHI-CAL CULTURE IN VALDIVIA

Abstract

The interest in exploring the city as an iconic source of meaning is traceable from the book "in search of meaning", written by Chilean philosopher Christopher Holzapfel, whose text can be read provocative and suggestive ideas to be addressed from other disciplines. Therefore, approaching to the urban phenomenon from a transdisciplinary perspective helps to understand its multidimensional nature. Hence, why not call upon to philosophy, and its concern of meaning -and why not to geography - and the sense of place? to examine the iconic places in the city of Valdivia.
The proposed method research is based on in-depth interviews to key informants inside the Valdivian geographical discipline. Geographers, who have developed, a non-participant observation, of the selected sites. As a findings, it has been established a close relationship between the chosen locations and the local cultural identity.