Ámbitos de mediación para la construcción de hábitats sostenibles en ciudades intermedias.

Abstract

This manuscript emanates from the results of a doctoral thesis submitted at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia. The aim of this paper is to present the development of urban spaces conceived as environments that can interlink urban identities with the territory in order to transform intermediate cities into more sustainable social structures. We present the case study of the city of Merida in Venezuela. We began by identifying public spaces in the city that can generate in its inhabitants a sense of ownership and citizenship, thus, using social capital, the social metabolism of that specific part of the city is transformed. In order to achieve this, the relationship city-territory is scrutinized. We assume that the city is located within the urban boundaries but it does not present opportunities of using existing social capital to enable the metabolic flows necessary to maintain this social capital and expand it to the rest of the city. The focus is on intermediate cities for two main reasons: 1. they are key areas in relation to sustainability because they are the main human settlements worldwide; and 2. their characteristics in relation to the territory makes possible the identification of people and spaces that can facilitate the restructuring of the model of the city which could be taken beyond its boundaries.