Rethinking gentrification concepts Cultural capital, patrimonio cultural and urban tourism in San Telmo/Buenos Aires (original) (raw)

For a long time urban research used an Euro-/Anglocentric perspective to analyse and explain gentrification processes in the ‘Global South’, for example in Latin America. But these socio-spatial transformations include specific characteristics which are not yet considered sufficient in modern research. For this reason the following research project concentrates on decentering the perspective on common gentrification concepts by examining the socio-spatial transformation processes in the historical neighbourhood of San Telmo in Buenos Aires. This case study contains with the influence of urban tourism, the connection between cultural capital and patrimonio cultural and tourists as new actors some interesting particularities. In times of neoliberalism urban tourism is an upcoming economic factor for cities worldwide and has a huge effect on the urban fabric and its population. To be more attractive to these visitors the city governments compete among each other using their cultural capital as local advantages, for example in San Telmo. So cultural capital is transformed into economic capital, a well studied transformation in common gentrification researches. But the so called patrimonio cultural is a new aspect which has a huge influence on the processes in the case study. The third particularity is the role of the tourists as so called temporary gentrifiers or mobile gentry within the gentrification processes in San Telmo creating a whole range of new demands. Public spaces, residential and commercial structures are more and more orientated to these extra-local demands and by this causing direct or indirect displacement and intensify the displacement pressure on the local population of San Telmo. The objective of this paper is to improve existing concepts of gentrification by considering these named particularities, get them more accurate and as a result add scientific value in the international debate.