Punto Sur

Renovación urbana en áreas centrales

2024-11-22T17:21:11+00:00

Este número especial, conformado por una selección de siete trabajos destacados, inicialmente presentados en el marco del III Coloquio Internacional de la Red Iberoamericana de Conflictos Urbanos, reúne aportes y evidencias recientes sobre la transformación excluyente de los centros urbanos en ciudades de América Latina y el sur de Europa. Considerando las dinámicas recientes de renovación y (re)valorización, las contribuciones ofrecen reflexiones sobre las diferentes formas en que las políticas urbanas y el capital inmobiliario están generando procesos de desplazamiento, gentrificación y turistificación en las ciudades, así como las estrategias de resistencia o reapropiación para desafiarlos.

Del Norte Global a América Latina

2024-11-14T17:58:39+00:00

Abstract
This theoretical paper aims to develop the concept of strategic urban requalification projects as a useful category for analyzing a particular type of urban actions intended to value urban space. These actions are designed and implemented in the Global North within the framework of the neoliberal accumulation regime and the postmodern urban paradigm, which have arrived in Latin America through a classic process of policy mobility and have been adopted and adapted by local governments to rescue and reclaim their central and historic urban spaces. The paper classifies these actions into three models that succeeded each other over the last decades of the 20th century and the early 21st century, presenting three paradigmatic cases: the Bologna Plan, the Barcelona Model, and the Human Scale Cities of the Nordic countries. This theoretical conceptualization proposal is the final result of extensive research in the field, which combined a broad review of global, regional, and local academic works used in two dimensions and empirical work on the production of central and historic urban space in Buenos Aires between 2007 and 2019.

Mechanisms of state-led gentrification: lessons from Argentina

2024-11-14T17:58:41+00:00

Gentrification is widely considered a planetary urban process that accentuates socio-spatial inequalities and limits the right to the city for low-income groups. The decisive role of the state in this process has received growing attention, and the Latin American gentrification literature has made important contributions in this regard. Based on a review of the recent literature on gentrification, neoliberal urban governance, and urban policy, this article categorizes the different mechanisms through which state-led gentrification is enacted. The following mechanisms are detailed: urban regulatory frameworks and “systematic exceptionalism”; the institutionalization of neoliberal urban governance; selective territorial (re)investment; and strategies of territorial (re)activation. This article illustrates these mechanisms in the context of Argentina in order to lay the groundwork to operationalize them as variables that can be employed in comparative research.

A THE PRIVATE APPROPRIATION OF THE HISTORIC CENTER OF THE CITY OF SALVADOR

2024-11-14T17:58:42+00:00

This paper investigates the recent paradigm shift in the public management of the historical heritage of Salvador's Historic Centre, which went from governments investing in a revitalization modeled for tourism (1990-2015), to governments seeking legal and financial models modeled for the unrestricted exploitation of the site by big private capital (2016-2022), treating its material, landscape and immaterial assets as financial assets. The interpretive framework for this change was identified with the election of the Brazilian federal government, in 2019 which, due to its extreme right-wing characteristics, ended up revealing an unexpected political alignment with the left-wing and center-right (respectively) local governments (state and municipal), in the ideas it presented for the management of cultural assets, thus giving more clarity to the plots of this process at the local level. This change continues despite the urgent social demands that the city is facing and the growing mobilization of social movements in the area. The contribution of this work is to raise critical awareness of this process, strengthening the idea of historical heritage as a public good and supporting the militancy of social movements, since, even with a different national political situation, the articulations made in the previous administration are still ongoing.

Is the València of squares causing green gentrification?

2024-11-14T17:58:42+00:00

Between 2015 and 2023, València has implemented a green urban planning model to make the city friendlier and more sustainable, leading to its candidacy as European Green City 2024. In this context, the ‘València de las Plazas’ project has renovated key spaces such as the Town Hall Square, Plaza de la Reina, Ciutat de Bruixes-Mercat, and Sant Agustí, which are considered urban megaprojects.
This study suggests that these interventions have promoted gentrification processes, both classical and touristic, in the affected neighborhoods. Even though some squares are still under construction or have only recently been completed, a significant increase in tourism has already been observed, with these squares serving as the main attractions. Additionally, there has been a decline in the young population and an increase in the number of migrants from countries with higher or similar incomes to Spain, a phenomenon linked to rising property prices in the affected areas, leading to a general increase in rents.

Valparaíso UNESCO Heritage: State-Directed Touristification and the Voices of a Disputed Urban Cycle

2024-11-14T17:58:43+00:00

Since the second half of the 20th century, Latin American heritage cities have experienced deterioration in their historic centers and neighborhoods, leading to real estate and tourism-driven rehabilitation efforts. This trend has prompted states to seek international funds and recognitions to facilitate these urban interventions. This article analyzes the direction given to urban policies and programs following the UNESCO World Heritage Site designation in Valparaíso, as well as the perspectives of community organizations on these urban transformations. Through interviews with political actors and community leaders, the article examines the objectives, tools, visions, and outcomes associated with these policies. The case of Valparaíso illustrates a tourist-driven gentrification process led by the central state through programs, plans, and subsidies that have promoted a tourist-real estate renewal in part of the UNESCO site. This cycle of heritage urban renewal is contested by communities due to the exalted heritage values, selective rehabilitation of sectors, loss of neighborhood life, and displacement of residents. Valparaíso highlights the role played by Latin American states in the processes of touristification and gentrification.

Consolidation and professionalization of Airbnb in central areas of Mexico City

2024-11-14T17:58:44+00:00

This paper seeks to describe the evolution of Airbnb in Mexico City, taking as a reference its spatial distribution patterns and the characteristics of the hosts based on the information displayed on the platform, to delineate its consolidation and professionalization and to attenuate that it is only a collaborative economy model. For this, the work has been divided into five sections. The first refers to a literature review of studies on the collaborative economy and Airbnb with emphasis on what has been produced in Latin America. The next, on the conceptual framework to which this paper is anchored, which takes as reference the hypercommercialization processes in urban centers in relation to global phenomena of neoliberalism. The methodological section describes the sources of information, their characteristics and the spatial analysis of the data, as well as qualitative methods to complement the interpretation; the fourth section is for the report of the case study and; finally, the conclusions, where it is expressed why it is possible to speak of a professionalization of Airbnb, as well as a hypothesis about a submarket of short-stay rental that is not consigned in the data collected on the platform.

The shadows of the night

2024-11-14T17:58:45+00:00

Public discourse around the night has been plagued by ambiguities, contradictions and double standards for several decades in Southern European cities: either described as a place of pleasure or dark threats and dangers; a place of economic and tourist growth or a place where ‘informality’, the ‘black market’ and underground activities take place. Alongside this, the emergence of migrant, often racialised, people exercising survival activities at night in these unequal economies of pleasure, has unleashed all the levers of contemporary demonisation against urban subalternity. With a particular focus on Madrid (Spain) and Rome (Italy), and through an exhaustive analysis of secondary sources, interviews with key actors, and participant observation, in this paper I explore the contradictions inherent to the geographies of pleasure in these territories. First, how public narratives of ‘blackness’ - underpinned by historical imaginaries of an alienated and racialised otherness - that appeal to a ‘white morality’ are used to make certain informal actors more clandestine (e.g. sex workers, street vendors) and drive them ‘into the shadows’ of urban space. Secondly, how the clandestinisation - followed by increased precariousness and psychological, physical and labour abuse - of these actors is operative to the neoliberal governance of South European geographies of pleasure (a public space cleansed of dark bodies) and to circuits of neoliberal accumulation.

Pampean Infrastructure Palimpsest

2024-11-14T17:58:45+00:00

The palimpsest of infrastructures that characterizes contemporary territories reflects the historical cycles of capital valorization through investment in new technology. However, it remains an opaque landscape. The patterns of diffusion of these technologies, particularly their uneven and incomplete nature, are still not fully understood. This exploratory research characterizes the different geological layers of the infrastructures that constitute the Pampean region of Argentina, aiming to reveal the process of selectivity employed by the state and global capital in response to accumulation crises and the emergence of each techno-economic paradigm.

Practices of resilience and transformation in amazonian riverside communities

2024-11-14T17:58:46+00:00

This article reveals and reflects on practices developed by two riverside communities in the Amazon, in the municipality of Porto Velho, Rondônia, and on a university research, teaching and extension project that keeps track of and interacts with these practices. The communities of São Carlos and Cavalcante, like all riverside communities in the Legal Amazon, are under pressure from illegal occupations of public lands, predatory deforestation, mining and other impacts on their nature-related way of life. In addition to these attacks, the two communities are continually unassisted by public policies, in the sense of a lack of accessibility to health services, education and other basic needs. Riverside dwellers demonstrate resilience practices and, together with researchers, they have advanced in conversations that address issues surrounding this adverse situation, translating their understandings into actions with the intent of transforming this situation.

Gender and Indigenous Issues in Latin American Geography Journals Between 1990 and 2021

2024-11-14T17:58:46+00:00

This article stems from the need to understand the state of scientific production in Geography concerning Indigenous women. It aims to review publications in Latin American Geography journals (online) from 1990 to 2021 that address gender and ethnic issues together and to identify the main concepts used. Through quantitative methodologies, we selected and systematized publications in Geography journals related to gender and ethnic categories. Additionally, content analysis was employed to identify the main themes, methodologies, and theoretical discussions present in these publications. The study reviewed a total of 71 journals, of which 18 publications were selected for their thematic relevance. These articles were grouped into four thematic areas: territorialities and daily practices, political participation, work and living conditions, and gender and indigenous issues. Among the main conclusions, it is noted that this subject represents an emerging field of knowledge and that these discussions are part of a limited universe of journals and publications.

Micro-coyuntura: una propuesta de análisis de la aceleración de la vida urbana

2024-11-14T17:58:47+00:00

Publicación original: Ribeiro, A. C. T. (2013). Micro-conjuntura: uma proposta de análise da aceleração da vida urbana. En: Por uma sociologia do presente - ação, técnica e espaço (vol. 4, pp. 173-192). Río de Janeiro: Letra Capital.
Traducción: María Laura Silveira
La investigación titulada “Micro-conjuntura: informação e oportunidade nas metrópoles brasileiras” se inserta en la línea de investigación Modernidade, Comunicação e Cultura: a nova face do poder metropolitano. En articulación con esa línea, fue creado el Laboratório da Conjuntura Social: Tecnologia e Território (LASTRO) que realiza y difunde análisis de las denominadas micro-coyunturas.

Tejido social: para liberar el diálogo con los futuros posibles

2024-11-14T17:58:47+00:00

Ribeiro, A. C. T. (2013). Micro-conjuntura: uma proposta de análise da aceleração da vida urbana. En: Por uma sociologia do presente - ação, técnica e espaço (vol. 4, pp. 173-192). Río de Janeiro: Letra Capital.

Por una indagación de la coexistencia de modos de imaginar y habitar la Tierra

2024-11-14T17:58:47+00:00

Besse, Jean-Marc (2024). La Tierra universal. Punto Sur, 10: 214-232.
doi:10.34096/ps.n10.13901

Gobernanzas neoliberales: un estudio comparativo de las ciudades de Buenos Aires y Chicago

2024-11-14T17:58:48+00:00

Carolina Sternberg (2023). Neoliberal Urban Governance. Spaces, cultures and discourses in Buenos Aires and Chicago. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 208 pp.

Los desafíos de la geografía política y la geopolítica en el siglo XXI

2024-11-22T17:16:09+00:00

En un mundo atravesado por conflictos de carácter estratégico, como la guerra entre la Federación de Rusia y la Organización del Tratado del Atlántico Norte (OTAN) en territorio ucraniano, la guerra entre el Estado de Israel y la organización Hamas en territorio palestino, y el drama humanitario que allí se vive; la disputa en el mar de la China Meridional y la tensa situación entre China y Hong Kong; América Latina en constante disputa en función de los vastos recursos que posee; el avance de las ultraderechas en Europa; las sucesivas crisis migratorias; el surgimiento de nuevos movimientos sociales con anclaje territorial; y la nueva descolonización de muchos países de África, solo por citar algunos ejemplos, preguntarnos por el papel de la geografía política y la geopolítica es clave.