Gentrification in the city of Buenos Aires: global trends and local features

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

Global gentrifications Uneven development and displacement

University of Chicago Press.

Lugar: Chicago; Año: 2015;

1- SUMMARY 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 government?s urban policy ?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. Also, 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.