The role of urban policy in socio-territorial changes in the southern area of the City of Buenos Aires

HERZER, HILDA; RODRÍGUEZ, MARÍA CARLA; DI VIRGILIO, MARÍA MERCEDES

Santiago de Chile

Seminario; Towards an emerging geography of gentrification in the global south. Seminar funded by the Urban Studies Foundation and Urban Studies Journal Seminar Series Competition; 2012

Universidad de Chile

Urbna renewal and urban requalification processes have played an important role in the changes occurred in the City of Buenos Aires during the last decades. The economic liberalization model which was strengthened during the 90s established the bases for a new urban ordainment based on the development of real estate investments, commercial stimulus, the supply of cultural and recreational services, etc., that promoted modernization in some city areas and boosted capital accumulation processes through a competitive insertion in the global market. This dynamics began to change (and kept on changing) the southern area of the city and, at the same time, it increased conditions for the displacement of the lower income sectors. The State ?national and local- played a necessary role as kickoff and support of these changes. Within this framework, this paper analyses the current local governments urban policy from the first one openly neoliberal since the City became politically autonomous in 1996 and at present in its second term of government by identifying policy changes and continuities and, particularly, their definitions and effects in relation to the popular sectors, many of which have been displaced by the gentrification process. This article reflects on the explanatory scope of the concept of gentrification to account for intra-urban changes and their importance in the context of a multiscale approach.