Urban, Housing, and Population Dynamics of the Inner and Former Peripheries of Buenos Aires

MARÍA MERCEDES DI VIRGILIO; LUCAS RAMIREZ

Journal of Latin American Geography (JLAG)

University of Texas Press

Lugar: Austin; Año: 2023 vol. 22 p. 82 - 115

During the twentieth century, the Buenos Aires metropolitan area underwent a process of significant territorial and demographic growth. Highly heterogeneous peripheries were formed through the different migratory flows arriving in the city. The disparate ways the state has intervened in the metropolitan area, the logic of the market, and the practices of residents have produced spatial and social divisions beyond the classic center-periphery pattern. Furthermore, the asymmetrical provision of infrastructure and services has resulted in heterogeneous spatial quality in the peripheries, according to their location and position in urbanization. Thus, throughout the expansion and metropolization of the city during the twentieth century, different peripheries were produced: inner peripheries, former peripheries, and new urban peripheries. This article examines the urban, housing, and population dynamics of the inner and former peripheries in the metropolitan area from a comparative perspective. It analyzes settlement processes, the quality of housing stock, and infrastructure, with attention to the economic and political factors that have influenced them in the inner and former peripheries. The approach is based on data from the Spatial Mobility Survey (EME) applied to different housing submarkets on the fringes of the metropolitan area. We contend that it is impossible to speak of a single periphery. On the contrary, it is necessary to think about multiple peripheries to understand the processes shaping the inner and suburban fringes. In Buenos Aires, modes of housing production have shaped peripheral spaces that, despite being functionally integrated into the metropolis, retain their status as peripheries strongly marked by their morphology and land market dynamics.