Objective.

To analyze the transformation of a public space in Manizales, Colombia, showing how collective action materialized in its uses and in some cognitive processes that allow representing it influence the way in which it is appropriated.

Methodology.

The methodology used started from an ethnographic approach to an urban park between 2016 and 2017.

Results.

The idea of the park as an obsolete space made by its inhabitants and users is due to the symbolic value of the material transformations associated with deterioration and changes in users and uses. Likewise, it was also evidenced that a change in the appropriation of the site, through collective action, affects its symbolic valuation and its revitalization.

Conclusions.

Public spaces are scenarios of complex and conflicting confluence of actors that, through their diverse forms of appropriation, put at stake citizenship, but also the vitality of places. Key words: public space, appropriation, territorial obsolescence, revitalization of space, collective action.

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