Social representations and public space in the construction of the city

This article is the product of a research experience that interprets, from the social actors, the multiple dimensions of public spaces in the city of Pereira, located in the western center of Colombia. The study allowed understanding how informal street corner vendors, based on their commercial practices, build, represent and appropriate the city, in a sector of crowded passage and pedestrian concentration such as Carrera Octava in the city of Pereira. The content of the article reveals the reading of the city through significant experiences built from the daily practices of informal street corner vendors. The information collected was the product of the combination of ethnographic design techniques and tools in qualitative research, giving an account of the forms of appropriation, uses and meanings that are constructed in public spaces as permanent scenarios of political, cultural and social manifestation.