Institution, symmetry and translation. MINVU’s Catastro Nacional de Condominios Sociales as an ontological policy

Abstract

The institution of an order of references for State actions is the result of policies of a different relational nature that are not always explicit or enunciated as such. This article describes the use of symmetry and translation procedures in the work carried out by the Área de Estudios de la Secretaría Ejecutiva de Desarrollo de Barrios del Ministerio de Vivienda y Urbanismo de Chile to develop the Catastro Nacional de Condominios Sociales, as evidence that it can be described as guided by an ontological perspective that influences the public policies based on it. Based on an analysis of the documents reporting the results of the Catastro, the article describes how the aforementioned epistemic procedures operate and discusses whether this can be understood as a type of urban policy, of ontological orientation, that governs the relationships between people and the sociotechnical environments in which they live, based on the population institution of these environments and the public policies that are based on this.