“Gentrification in the city of Buenos Aires: Global trends and local features” en A global gentrificacion?

HERZER HILDA; DI VIRGIIO, MARIA MERCEDES; RODRIGUEZ, MARÍA CARLA

Gentrification, Globalization and the Post-colonial Challenge

Policy Press

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2013;

Despite the fact that gentrification processes are far from being a new phenomenon in the field of urban studies, their importance lies nowadays in the scale of changes that cities are undergoing–particularly in their historic quarters-, as well as in the links that such transformations seem to have within the globalised economy. As Sassen points out (1997), the transformation of the global economy restored the importance of large cities as the site of certain types of production, services, commercialisation and innovation. In a globalised economy, cities become centres for the growth and consolidation of capital investment and for the development of an international real estate market. Latin American cities do not appear to break away from this trend. The new phase of territorial capital accumulation has had a strong impact on the urban process of Latin American cities, promoting what some authors identify as the redefinition of the sense of urbanity from “the notion of demographic concentration and urbanisation towards the idea of disperse and fragmented socio-spatial structures” (Carrión, 2010). Within this framework, gentrification is a phenomenon that becomes widespread and integrated in wider processes, both urban and global, and it is differentiated from what happened during previous decades when these processes were circumscribed to specific sites (Smith, 2002). It is important to question – in the way Marcuse and Kempen (2000) do about North American cities- if gentrification processes in Latin American cities are part of the establishment of a new urban order or if, on the contrary, they are processes that have only become more marked. At first, we may note that the interest to recover old quarters in the city’s privileged locations is fundamentally guided by the profitability of its housing and commerce and by the possibilities of its touristic exploitation. Within this process, the existing divisions among different social sectors are increasingly evident: barriers are no longer virtual as during past decades, but are set in highly inequitable conditions regarding access to urban equipment, urban aesthetics, green spaces, etc. Although the processes are not as different in their characteristics as those registered during the 90s, they have changed in terms of degree and intensity, making economic and social differences more profound. This paper looks into the development of gentrification processes in the city of Buenos Aires. These processes started at the beginning of the 1990s; but during the last decade and, particularly as a way out from the 2000-2002 crises, they have gained an unusual strength and have extended to different quarters and locations in the city. In this chapter, we will deal more specifically with the process that takes place in the city’s southern area: the San Telmo, Barracas and La Boca quarters.