State-led gentrification in three Latin American cities

ABSTRACT

Many authors agree that gentrification in Latin America depends on the intervention of the state. However, for the renovation of large urban areas that have long lacked public attention, state intervention is a pivotal driver. This comparative analysis involved fieldwork analysis and short ethnographies in Mexico, Argentina, and Brazil. Results show variations and some common threads, namely land valorization policies, schemes designed to promote the creation of economic opportunities for upper-income investors and developers, the establishment of creative or cultural industrial hubs, investment in new transport and cultural infrastructure, city rebranding, and the use of iconic architecture. Displacement policies have been implemented in Brazil, although with limited success. In Brazil and Mexico, attempts have been made to control social behaviors within particular spaces, often in a racialized manner. We arrive at a narrative that differs from that of the Global North, which considers state-led gentrification to constitute the privatization of social housing under the hegemonic imposition of discourses of “social mixing.” The concept of state and its trajectory differ considerably in each hemisphere.

Acknowledgments

Our special appreciation to: Emilio Romero, Mariana Werneck, Mariana Albinati, Hernán Orozco, Daniel Meza, Hernán Marín, Macarena Hermosilla, Natalia Lerena, and Ricardo Apaolaza for their invaluable assistance with data collection and analysis. Also, thanks to Luis César Queiroz-Ribeiro, Víctor Delgadillo, Julio Dávila, Caren Levy, Alex Schafran, Matthias Bernt, and all the colleagues and students who also commented on, criticized, and contributed to earlier versions of this paper. Our very special appreciation to all the residents and people who shared their precious time of struggle and everyday resistance with us.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. For example, Mexico City’s La Roma and Condesa neighborhoods (Salinas, 2014), Buenos Aires’s La Boca (Herzer, 2008), or Rio de Janeiro’s Barra de Tijuca (Gaffney, 2016).

2. In 2015, the boisterous Plataforma 06600, along with activists from other central colonias, organized a successful referendum against the privatization of Chapultepec Avenue by PROCDMX, who sought to convert it into the so-called “Cultural Corridor.” More than 16,000 people took part in the historic vote. One year later, Plataforma 06600 also successfully opposed the construction of a public transportation node, also sponsored by PROCDMX, that included a luxury shopping mall, new offictatee space and a hotel, all to be built on newly privatized public land located on one of Colonia Juárez’s borders (López-Morales, 2017).

3. Memórias do Cais do Valongo, a documentary directed by Antonio Muricy and Carlos Teixeira, tells the history of Zona Portuária up to the mid-20th century. Available with English subtitles at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-tGBG9_zBg.

4. Odebrecht has been implicated in several bribery scandals involving top-ranking political figures in several Latin American countries, including the conviction of former Brazilian president Lula da Silva.

Additional information

Funding

Fondecyt #1151287 – ANID Fondap #15130009 by Fondo Nacional de Desarrollo Científico y Tecnológico.

Notes on contributors

Ernesto López-Morales

Ernesto López-Morales is Associate Professor at the Department of Urban Planning, University of Chile, where he teaches at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels. He holds a critical and interdisciplinary research approach, focused on issues of gentrification, land and housing markets, financialization, anti-displacement social contestation, and counter-hegemonic housing production. He has published several articles, books, and columns, in Spanish, English, and Portuguese languages.

Javier Ruiz-Tagle

Javier Ruiz-Tagle is a PhD in Urban Planning and Policy at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He has specialized in topics of residential segregation, housing policies, neighborhood effects, urban marginality, housing self-organization, urban sociology, and comparative studies. He has published, presented, and won honors and awards with his work in Chile, the United States and Europe. He was section-editor of Encyclopedia of Urban and Regional Studies (Wiley-Blackwell, 2019) and co-editor of Companion to Urban and Regional Studies (Wiley-Blackwell, 2021), and Marginalidad Urbana y Efectos Institucionales (Urban Marginality and Institutional Effects; RIL, 2021).

Orlando Alves Santos Junior

Orlando Alves Santos Junior is a Professor at the Institute of Urban and Regional Planning at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (IPPUR/UFRJ). He is a PhD in Urban and Regional Planning (IPPUR/UFRJ) and he is a researcher at the National Science and Technology Institute’s Observatory of the Metropolis. He has published many articles and books focusing on urban planning, social movements, and urban sociology. He is a researcher sponsored by CNPq scholarship—Level 2.

Jorge Blanco

Jorge Blanco is the Head of the Institute of Geography and he is Professor at the Department of Geography at the Universidad de Buenos Aires. He is a MSc in Environmental and Territorial Policies of the Universidad de Buenos Aires. He has been a visiting professor at different universities in Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Spain and the United Kingdom. He has published articles and books on research topics including urban planning, transport and mobility.

Luis Salinas Arreortúa

Luis Salinas Arreortúa is a PhD in Geography of the University of the Mexico. He is a full-time researcher in the Social Geography of the Institute of Geography at UNAM. He has been a visiting professor at different universities in Latin America, like the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences, Ecuador, National University of Córdoba, Argentina, University of Costa Rica, Pontifical Catholic University of Paraná, Brazil, and others. He teaches geography and urbanism of UNAM and has published widely on research topics including urban segregation, gentrification, urban neoliberalism, housing policy, and urban management. He is a member of the National System of Research of CONACyT.