The study of Aurora de Chile reveals the existence of a gentrification process associated to urban renewal policies and natural disasters -earthquakes- in the riverfront neighbourhood of Aurora, as symbolic tools that justify the development of urban operations that are being implemented without participatory strategies. Through a methodology based on the revision of urban planning instruments, ethnographic observations, interviews to key informants and neighbour conversation groups, the different phases of the urban renewal process were analyzed, noting the arguments related to planning and reconstruction, and how these symbolic constructions determine the expression, of the different actors involved, regarding the city and its post catastrophe development. Finally it is proposed that a strategy of urban renewal of the riverfront exists, and that it uses the earthquake as an opportunity to trigger the acceleration of joint public and private projects, but it’s not made explicit in an urban planning project. Thus, naturalizing the need that the inhabitants of this urban village "sacrifice" part of their land and identity for the good and future development of the city.
Keywords:
Gentrification, reconstruction, urban renewal
Author Biographies
Christian Paulo Matus Madrid, Universidad de Concepción
Antropólogo, Doctor en Arquitectura y Estudios Urbanos, Investigador Post-doctoral Centro de Desarrollo Urbano Sustentable (CEDEUS)
Camila Eugenia Barraza Huaiquimilla, Universidad de Concepción
Licenciada en Arquitectura, equipo profesional Centro de Desarrollo Urbano Sustentable (CEDEUS)
Constansa Marcela Vergara Andrade, Universidad de Concepción
Socióloga, equipo profesional Centro de Desarrollo Urbano Sustentable (CEDEUS)
Rodrigo Patricio Ganter Solís, Universidad de Concepción
Sociólogo, Doctor en Arquitectura y Estudios Urbanos, Investigador Asociado, Centro de Desarrollo Urbano Sustentable (CEDEUS)
Matus Madrid, C. P., Barraza Huaiquimilla, C. E., Vergara Andrade, C. M., & Ganter Solís, R. P. (2016). Urban renewal and post catastrophe gentrification in Concepcion: the case of Aurora de Chile. Revista De Urbanismo, (34), 89–110. https://doi.org/10.5354/ru.v0i34.39576
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