Axes of Labor Memory in the Social Construction of the Neighborhood. The Settlement Linos La Unión (1941-2004)

Abstract

In this article, we analyze the social construction of a neighborhood from the memory of the workers of the Linen Factory in La Unión, Los Ríos region, Chile. Based on a historiographic review from related disciplines such as human geography and urban studies, we explore the impact of industrial paternalism and how memory manages to evaluate this regime of social, economic, and political intervention. We propose that entrepreneurial action defined the ways of life and inhabiting in an industrial paternalistic fashion, but the political and social dynamics of the twentieth century modified those ways of life and inhabiting until paternalism was brought down. Based on a review of the most significant elements that are observed through participatory cartography work and individual testimonies, categories such as housing, work, celebrations and the relationship with nature are defined to explain the axes of labor memory in this neighborhood.