Browsing by Author "Gil, Magdalena"

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    Disasters as Critical Junctures: State Building and Industrialization in Chile after the Chillán Earthquake of 1939
    (2022) Gil, Magdalena
    In 1939 an earthquake destroyed south-central Chile, especially the city of Chillán. This event was arguably the most catastrophic socio-natural disaster in Chilean history, yet it has been mostly ignored in historical research. This article shows that the earthquake triggered a critical juncture for the Chilean state and was a determining factor in some of the most important institutional developments of the period. Using primary sources, the article describes this juncture, focusing on the destabilizing effect of the earthquake and linking it to the creation of two new state institutions, the Production Development Corporation (CORFO) and the Reconstruction and Assistantship Corporation (CRA), together with other important changes in state capacities. It concludes that the disaster is crucial in understanding the Chilean transition from an exporting economy to an import-substituting one after 1940, and to account for the strength of the Chilean state in the decades to come.
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    Figuring disasters, an experiment on thinking disruptions as methods
    (2019) Tironi, Manuel; Bacigalupe, Gonzalo; Knowles, Scott Gabriel; Dickinson, Simon; Gil, Magdalena; Kelly, Sarah; Ludwig, Jason; Moesch, Jarah; Molina, Francisco; Palma, Karla; Siddiqi, Ayesha; Waldmueller,Johannes
    In this report, we reflect on the 2-day thinkshop ‘Figuring disasters: methodological speculations in exorbitant worlds’ held in Valparaíso, Chile. The thinkshop aimed at discussing the possibility of inventing new genres for the figuration, representation and visualisation of distributed and processual geoclimatic disruptions. For this report, we assembled a choral essay in which each one of the participants selected one object of our visit to Messana—an informal settlement in the outskirts of Valparaíso that was severely damaged by the 2017 fires—and knit around, from and with it a reflection on the thinkshop and its questions. The report is thus fractionary. We do not look for wholes, perhaps as disasters themselves problematise linear narratives. We prefer to be attentive to what each one of us inherited from Messana and to stage that sensibility in a multiplicity, though adventures into what disasters as methods can and should be.
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    Fiscal aftershocks: taxes and catastrophes in Chilean history
    (2022) Gil, Magdalena; Atria, Jorge
    Socio-natural disasters remain underexplored events in economic history, even though they stress societies in several ways and are known for their relationship with institutional change. In this paper, we explore this issue showing that major earthquakes in Chile have become a window of opportunity for important fiscal reforms. Our findings indicate that there are two mechanisms to explain this relationship: first, reconstruction demands greater state expenditure and intervention; and second, the emergence of narratives that justify these reforms, such as patriotism and solidarity. However, data show that in the case of Chile, changes following disasters have had little impact on the overall tax structure of the country, and the historical preference for indirect taxes has been maintained, with limited power to impose taxes on high-income groups.
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    Gran Laboratorio de Resiliencia Frente a Desastres de Origen Natural
    (2018) de la Llera, Juan Carlos; Rivera, F; Gil, Magdalena
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    Rethinking Disasters as Events
    (2017) Gil, Magdalena
    Tendencias actuales en la Sociología de Desastres han desafiado nociones clásicas que ven los desastres como eventos extraordinarios, reemplazándola por una que los entiende como algo normal, común, y dependiente de las fuerzas sociales ya existentes. Esta perspectiva constructivista ha enriquecido el campo enormemente, haciéndolo más sociológico. Sin embargo, ha fallado en relacionar los desastres con la posibilidad de cambio social. Este artículo ahonda en esta problemática y se pregunta cómo podemos aproximarnos a ella de una manera fructífera, tomando en cuenta los efectos de los desastres en el largo plazo. Se argumenta que para ello no necesitamos reemplazar la concepción de desastre como evento, sino que en su lugar debemos repensar qué es lo que entendemos por evento. Para lograr esto, este artículo se acerca al campo de la Sociología Histórica y su noción de evento como aquella secuencia de ocurrencias que produce transformaciones sociales. Bajo esta noción, los eventos no son considerados como shocks externos sino, por el contrario, son vistos como “eventuando” del pasado. Sin embargo, se entiende también que pueden tener grandes consecuencias a futuro. A modo de conclusión, se postula que solo considerando los desastres como eventos situados es que podemos analizar sus efectos en el largo plazo y revelarlos como momentos claves para el cambio social.
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    THE RECONSTRUCTION OF VALPARAISO'S URBAN VALUE AFTER THE 1906 EARTHQUAKE
    (PONTIFICIA UNIV CATOLICA CHILE, ESCUELA ARQUITECTURA, 2017) Gil, Magdalena
    The idea that disasters become an opportunity is almost a cliche; what we never know is who or what will benefit from it. Based on the debates following the 1906 earthquake in Valparaiso, this text argues that when a city is ruined and decisions to rebuild must be taken, the difference between what is valued and what is not is clearly shown. The opportunity, then, becomes a discussion on values.