Local strategies in global contexts: the role of urban culture in the tourist policies of Buenos Aires, Argentina (2002-2009)

GÓMEZ SCHETTINI, MARIANA; GONZALEZ BRACCO, MERCEDES; ALMIRÓN, ANALÍA; ZUNINO, DHAN

Gothenburg

Congreso; XVII ISA World Congress of Sociology; 2010

International Sociological Association

Since the early 1990s urban renewal plans have been applied in the historicalcentre & waterfront of Buenos Aires. In the context of a “touristboom,” as a consequence of the devaluation of the Argentine currency in2002, public & private investments in urban renewal have been related tothose policies which promote cultural tourism. Several cultural manifestations,strongly linked to renewed spaces, have been protected under heritagelegislations for being considered authentic values of local identitythreatened by Globalization. The main purpose of this paper is to analysethe role of the tourist, cultural, & urban policies of the Buenos Aires Governmentin the invention of local identity & the value of the urban cultureheritage through two strategies: the Plan of Tourist Marketing for BuenosAires (2007) & the Nomination of Tango for intangible cultural heritageof humanity (UNESCO, 2009). The paper states that urban heritage hasa cultural value as well as an economic one, not to mention the fact thatthe commercial uses of culture has been the main objective of the localstrategy has as its main objective the commercial uses of culture in orderto insert Buenos Aires into the global market. All things considered, sincethe authenticity of places operates as an attraction in the international marketof tourism, globalization, far from being a threat, seems to be the conditionto revalorize local culture.