INTERPRETING SOCIOSPATIAL FRAGMENTATION, DIFFERENTIAL URBANIZATION AND EVERYDAY LIFE: A CRITIQUE FOR THE LATIN AMERICAN DEBATE

Abstract

Similar to many concepts in Social Sciences, the concept of sociospatial fragmentation has been often misused, at times leading to significant confusion. In view of that, this article aims to critically review this concept through some of the principal works about Latin American cases. It brings into discussion that, from a critical perspective and compared with differential urbanization and everyday life, the concept of sociospatial fragmentation contributes to explaining the current relationships between space and society. Based on such an interpretive association of ideas, the study indicates correspondence to strong social and spatial tendencies: the chronification of the crisis of capitalism, the complete urbanization of society, the bankruptcy of modernity, and the fragmentation of everyday life. All that led to the conclusion that fragmentation is, fundamentally, a battle against the use-value of everyday life, which characterizes the present relationships between space and society.