La evolución demográfica de América Latina, y especialmente Chile, muestra un creciente envejecimiento de la población: ya en el 2050, uno de cada cuatro latinoamericanos y uno de cada tres chilenos tendrán más de 60 años. Entre los elementos que contribuyen al bienestar de las personas mayores, las posibilidades de movilidad y acceso juegan un rol fundamental y debieran entonces constituirse como prioridad en la formulación de planes y políticas de movilidad. Sin embargo, las tradicionales metodologías de la planificación de trasporte no logran capturar adecuadamente las formas en que las personas mayores se mueven y logran acceder a oportunidades urbanas. El artículo discute el valor de integrar diferentes métodos de análisis para una mejor representación de la movilidad de las personas mayores. Analizando la movilidad y la accesibilidad de una comunidad de personas mayores en el barrio San Eugenio, en Santiago de Chile, el artículo compara los resultados de entrevistas y encuestas por hogares, observando en qué medida contribuyen a la descripción de las prácticas de movilidad y acceso de la población examinada. Los resultados muestran la relevancia de enfoques cualitativos que, a escala barrial, examinan específicamente la población mayor, considerando que estos métodos hacen emerger prácticas de movilidad y patrones de accesibilidad difíciles de observar a través de análisis más agregados. La aproximación a la movilidad de las personas mayores permitida por las herramientas cualitativas requiere considerar las condiciones de su adopción por parte de la planificación de la movilidad al nivel barrial y urbano.

The Sistema de Evaluación de Impacto Ambiental (Environmental Impact Assessment System—SEIA) evaluates all projects potentially harmful to human health and the environment in Chile. Since its establishment, many projects approved by the SEIA have been contested by organized communities, especially in the energy sector. The question guiding our research is whether socio-environmental conflicts affect the evaluation times and the approval rates of projects under assessment. Using a novel database comprising all energy projects assessed by the SEIA, we analyzed 380 energy projects that entered the SEIA review process between 2012 and 2017 and matched these projects with protest events. Using linear and logit regression, we find no association between the occurrence of protests aimed at specific projects and the probability of project approval. We do, however, find that projects associated with the occurrence of protest events experience significantly longer review times. To assess the robustness of this finding, we compare two run-of-river plants proposed in Mapuche territory in Chile’s La Araucanía region. We discuss the broader implications of these findings for sustainable environmental decision making.

Street markets can contribute to food security, since they are a source of fresh food and comparably inexpensive goods, being very relevant for low-income groups. Their relevance is even higher when considering older people, due to their often-constrained financial resources and possibilities to move. To assess the potential contribution of street markets to food security, this paper aims at evaluating to what extent older people have access to such a relevant asset. We consider the case of Chile, an ageing country with an unequal pension system, which makes it relevant for older people to access healthy and inexpensive food. We analyze what proportion of older people (i.e., people over 65) has walking access within 10 min to a street market—feria libre—in each Chilean region, with particular detail in the country’s four major urban areas. We compare the resulting accessibility maps with census data to identify neighborhoods with higher proportions of older people and examine their socio-economic conditions. Our findings show that while street markets are less accessible to older people in comparison to the general population, the inhabitants who can access them belong mainly to low-income groups. The results provide relevant insights to develop neighborhood-based policies for spreading and strengthening street markets, especially in low-income areas with insufficient levels of access to other relevant urban opportunities.