Anti gentrification Strategies

Partindo de uma perspectiva ou abordagem trialética que o termo “fronteira” empresta ao estudo da gentrificação, a discussão que desencadearemos em torno da gentrificação estruturar-se-á em duas partes essenciais. A primeira visa a fazer uma cartografia conceitual da gentrificação e de como o processo tem evoluído nos estudos urbanos, desde os anos 60, à luz das principais hipóteses explicativas que a enformam. A segunda visa a mapear as principais fronteiras e desafios que se colocam à investigação do processo: a sua polêmica relação com as políticas públicas de reabilitação urbana; os equívocos do seu contributo para o mix social e residencial; as máscaras de bondade institucional que a regeneração urbana e a tese da cidade criativa representam para a produção da cidade como máquina de crescimento;
a expansão territorial, pluriescalar e glocal da gentrificação como estratégia ideológica a serviço de um urbanismo global, neoliberal e revanchista.

This paper uncovers the mobilisation and resistance of citizens in the UK against retail gentrification. It focuses on existing and past campaigns that have emerged to save, promote and sustain traditional retail markets in particular in London. By traditional markets we refer to covered and uncovered licensed markets which sell all kinds of produce and services. In this paper we look at traditional retail markets not merely as spaces for consumption but as spaces for socialising, identity building and also for contestation and resistance. The aims of the paper are: 1. To explain how and why traditional markets are under threat 2. To critically analyse processes of gentrification in traditional retail markets 3. To discuss existing campaigns and resistance practices against the gentrification of traditional retail markets in London. The paper is based on research conducted thanks to a scholar-activist award by the Antipode Foundation in 2015. We used a mixed methodology of desk-based research to provide a picture of the state of markets in the UK and uncover existing and past market campaigns. We identified 10 past and present campaigns across the UK and in this paper we focus on 3 campaigns in London. We find that although campaigns not always use the language if gentrification as discussed by academics, the markets as mobilised as spaces for political discussion about the city and urban justice.

Le transumanze notturne verso i quartieri e le vie della movida, le feste di strada, i mercati all’aperto itineranti, tutto quell’insieme di effervescenze che fanno sembrare una città vivace e dinamica sono ormai parte della cultura urbana. Ma quello che fa di un quartiere una meta turistica glamour è spesso frutto di una «artificiosa» riqualificazione che consiste nel risanamento, il più delle volte con interventi di speculazione immobiliare, di aree popolari e nell’espulsione degli abitanti originari, a favore di classi più agiate (la gentry per l’appunto). Vasti tessuti sociali vengono così lacerati, per far posto ad un fiorire di negozi vintage, birrerie artigianali, pasticcerie siciliane a fianco di marchi transnazionali in un panorama eclettico ma senza memoria.

Autores: Horacio Espinosa Zepeda

Localización: Barrios corsarios: memoria histórica, luchas urbanas y cambio social en los márgenes de la ciudad neoliberal / coord. por Giuseppe Aricó, José A. Mansilla, Marco Luca Stanchieri, 2016, ISBN 978-84-16828-01-2, págs. 173-196

Idioma: español

This report is about the ethics and transparency of corporate political organising. Its case study is Airbnb, one of the biggest companies in the ‘platform’ economy, who resources, mobilises and coordinates its landlords as political advocates to lobby for its preferred forms of regulation. Since 2008, numbers of short-term lettings, many of which might otherwise house permanent residents, have expanded dramatically. The associated problems, around housing shortages, tourism, taxation and urban conviviality, have led to social movement opposition and local attempts to regulate.

Airbnb’s use of grassroots lobbying, where businesses influence democratic institutions by creating and coordinating apparently independent social movements to act on their behalf, has been key in their response. Airbnb presents carefully curated and intensively coordinated groups of landlords with a single room or property as ‘people power’: independent grassroots groups who share its policy preferences. This offers the company legitimacy and additional political influence to protect a business model that is increasingly dominated by professional accommodation providers.

Gentrification is often discussed deploying colonization as a metaphor, however, this paper looks at how gentrification, through its mobilization of capitalist relationalities (through private property and through economic and cultural life) is a form of ongoing colonization. As a a highly normativizing economic practice, gentrification forms a necro-political assault on different bodies. Crip social praxis art is discussed as a form of self-representation that has the possibility to recuperate lumpen bodies as creative and political agents, locally active in anti-gentrification struggles.

In the past decade, urban regeneration policy makers and practitioners have faced a number of difficult challenges, such as sustainability, budgetary constraints, demands for community involvement and rapid urbanization in the Global South. Urban regeneration remains a high profile and important field of government-led intervention, and policy and practice continue to adapt to the fresh challenges and opportunities of the twenty-first century, as well as confronting long-standing intractable urban problems and dilemmas. This Companion provides cutting-edge critical review and synthesis of recent conceptual, policy and practical developments within the field. With contributions from 72 international experts within the field, it explores the meaning of ‘urban regeneration’ in differing national contexts, asking questions and providing informed discussion and analyses to illuminate how an apparently disparate field of research, policy and practice can be rendered coherent, drawing out common themes and significant differences. The Companion is divided into six parts, exploring: globalization and neo-liberal perspectives on urban regeneration; emerging econceptualizations of regeneration; public infrastructure and public space;
housing and cosmopolitan communities; community centred regeneration; and culture-led regeneration. The concluding chapter considers the future of urban regeneration and proposes a nine-point research agenda. This Companion assembles a diversity of approaches and insights in one comprehensive volume to provide a state-of-the-art review of the field. It is a valuable resource for both advanced undergraduate
and postgraduate students in Urban Planning, Built Environment, Urban Studies and Urban Regeneration, as well as academics, practitioners and politicians.

Urban ethnographers must understand that while we look at things using close-up lenses, most policy-makers, on the other hand, employ wide-angle lens to describe what is going on at that very same street level. In this chapter, the authors attempt to provide a contrast between those views in the context of the radically changed public perception of the New York City Borough of Brooklyn. When the authors began their sociological research (and social activism) in the late twentieth century, the neighborhoods in which they were active suffered from the spread of middle-class (white) flight and urban blight. Today, in the first two decades of the twenty-first century, the fortunes of these same areas have been reversed, but longer-term residents face new ‘problems’ in the form of gentrification and displacement. It is suggested here that a view from the street can provide a better sociological understanding of the bigger picture.

Gentrification can be understood as the process through which geographical areas become increasingly exclusive, which disproportionately harms people living in poverty and people of color, as well as the elderly, families, and youth. As such, this article argues that macro social work practitioners should view gentrification as a key concern. Thus, to help guide macro interventions, the article begins by first defining gentrification and describing ways to measure it, while emphasizing its difference from revitalization. Second, the article explores causes of gentrification, including its relationship to systemic racism. Third, the article explores the consequences of gentrification on individuals' and communities' well-being, considering how these consequences can influence macro practice. Finally, the article provides insight into ways that macro practitioners can strategically with others to prevent gentrification, mitigate its harms, and proactively support community well-being in areas threatened by gentrification.

Our cities are changing. Around the world, more and more money is being invested in buildings and land. Real estate is now a $217 trillion dollar industry, worth thirty-six times the value of all the gold ever mined. It forms sixty percent of global assets, and one of the most powerful people in the world—the president of the United States—made his name as a landlord and developer. Samuel Stein shows that this explosive transformation of urban life and politics has been encouraged by the state-driven process of urban planning. Planning agencies provide a unique window into the ways the state uses and is used by capital, and the means by which urban renovations are translated into rising real estate values and rising rents. Capital City explains the role of planners in the real estate state, as well as the remarkable power of planning to reclaim urban life.
[NOTE: this article is the book's introduction, as excerpted in Next City]

Activist archives which collect the documents of anti-gentrification campaigns occupy a critical position in which to study contemporary urban politics. They are interesting not only for their record of contested urban redevelopment projects, but also because the practice of archiving has itself become a strategy used within anti-gentrification struggles. Drawing on cases studies from Vancouver (Canada) and London (UK), this talk outlines uses of activist archives in the study of anti-gentrification campaigns. It describes discursive and ethnographic approaches that enable archives to be considered simultaneously as source material for history production and as spaces of practice. Woven through the discussion of the two case studies is an exploration of the politics of knowledge production. It draws attention to how knowledge production is configured in gentrification struggles, in archives, and in research itself.

Presented at the LSE's Department of Methodology Seminar Series.

Listen to the presentation at: http://www.lse.ac.uk/methodology/newsEvents/Past-Seminar-Series.aspx

""Sulukule was one of the most famous neighborhoods in Istanbul because of the Romani culture and historic identity. In 2006, the Fatih Municipality knocked on the residents’ doors with an urban renovation project. The community really did not know how they could retain their residence in the neighborhood; unfortunately everybody knew that they would not prosper in another place without their community connections. They were poor and had many issues impeding their livelihoods, but there should have been another solution that did not involve eviction. People, associations, different volunteer groups, universities in Istanbul, and also some trade associations were supporting the people of Sulukule. The Sulukule Platform was founded as this predicament began and fought against government eviction for years. In 2009, the area was totally destroyed, although the community did everything possible to save their neighborhood through the support of the Sulukule Platform. I cannot say that they lost everything in this process, but I also cannot say that anything was won. I can only say that the Fatih Municipality soiled its hands. No one will forget Sulukule, but everybody will remember the Fatih Municipality with this unsuccessful project.

Sulukule stands out as a symbolic case for social justice groups that promote the expansion of civil rights and defend neighborhoods that struggle for their rights. Therefore, the Sulukule Platform shows that another form of transformation which involves public participation in the decision-making phase of planning is possible in the cities. This study aims to demonstrate how the advocacy planning method is significant in planning for communities.

This thesis proposes to present a full report of the Sulukule Platform case. It also provides a historical background that works to contextualize Sulukule and their struggle into the broader context of socio-economic inequalities in Istanbul and the fight of inhabitants in urban transformation areas for their civil rights. The study focuses on one of the less experimented planning models, advocacy planning, and analyzes its first incidence in Turkey through the Sulukule Platform. Also it examines public participation and its place in the urban planning profession.

This thesis, first, will help to show how Turkish public officials failed to learn from the mistakes of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s; second, it will look at how the urban renewal is being implemented in developing countries especially in Turkey. I will argue that because globalizing-cities like Istanbul are being pressured to implement urban renewal but are often failing to learn lessons from American and European urban renewal.""

This chapter explores the impact archives have in social justice struggles over urban redevelopments, looking at uses of activist archives in an anti-gentrification campaign. Because urban redevelopment takes place over a long period of time (sometimes decades) and because it is an increasingly bureaucratic and mediated process, archives can aid activists in contesting gentrification. Drawing from a case study of the 56a Infoshop Archive and the redevelopment of the Heygate Council Estate in London, UK, this chapter illuminates two ways in which archives have been incorporated into anti-gentrification activism. First, archiving is used as a means to track the redevelopment process, enabling scrutiny of local authorities and developers. Secondly, archival records are used to construct and disseminate alternative narratives in public spheres that counter official discourses of regeneration. Learning from the case study, I suggest that the social justice impact of archives for activists is the ability to mobilize alternative and counter-knowledges, strengthen collective voices in official spaces of politics, and preserve and publicize histories of resistance against inequalities in the city.

This thesis critically examines how narratives of neighborhood identity and boundaries become manufactured, reinterpreted, and commodified by corporate-led urban development in Kakaʻako by engaging in critical discourse analysis, narrative research, and phenomenology by examining discursive literature and conducting interviews with community stakeholders. In critically examining the production of space, this project addresses how such processes are tied to a broader structure of inequality and shape how neighborhood identities and boundaries change or remain. The prevalent anxieties within the public discourse of Hawaiʻi is that Honolulu is increasingly experiencing gentrification and becoming “a playground for the rich.” Such notions reflect David Harvey’s argument that, within the predominant neoliberal economic structure of capitalist economies, capital is allowed to shape cities and the urban landscape as a whole through the process of “accumulation by dispossession” (Ley, 1994). Consequently, such processes superimpose settler-colonial geographies upon the landscape, thereby rendering Indigenous geographies disenfranchised. While gentrification is a predominately economic process, its development is reinforced by consumption-oriented patterns toward urban space, which, within the intermodal process of consumption-oriented gentrification, reflects David Ley’s (1994) observation that socio-cultural characteristics and motives are vital toward understanding the gentrification of the post-industrial city. In recognizing gentrification’s inherently violent processes of dispossession and erasure as a result of the uneven production and consumption of space, this project aims to critically examine the neoliberal structuring of cities, which facilitates the commodification and consumption of space in Hawaiʻi, using the district of Kakaʻako as a site of inquiry.

This PhD thesis investigates emerging processes of gentrification in medium-sized cities within the European context. The research is based on a multi-method approach and uses two case studies to analyse and compare the socio-spatial change of two semi-central neighbourhoods located in the cities of Bologna and Bristol. The attention is focused on multiple and interrelated phenomena that participate in the transformation of the urban environment, giving rise to specific forms of gentrification. The study takes into account the evolution of the neighbourhoods of interest, exploring demographic dynamics, urban planning choices, economic and commercial trends, changes in the physical environment and social reality, to the point of dwelling on the impacts of these processes and the forms of resistance that may arise. The research provides analytical and methodological insights for the investigation of these processes of urban transformations, highlighting the centrality of the context in explaining the different outcomes they can lead to

La nature en ville dans un contexte de densification, étude portant sur l'archéologie de l'écologie urbaine. Comportant une analyse comparative des processus d'urbanisation au 19ème et de gentrification au 21ème. Une recherche sur la biopolitique mineure (résistance, négociations, participation) et sur la nature sauvage et rudérale : la friche.

Künye bilgileri: I. Uluslararası Kent Araştırmaları Kongresi Bildiriler Kitabı'da 2015 yılında basılmıştır.
Editörler: Mustafa Altunoğlu - Şerife Geniş, Ankara: İdealkent
ISBN: 978-605-83819-1-9

Özet

Soylulaştırma kavramı kullanım biçimine bağlı olarak s(rmekte olan rant m(cadelesini gölgeley
e-
bilmektedir. ”u nedenle kullanımında öncelikle bir taraf belirlenmesine ihtiyaç vardır. 5zg(n bir soylulaştırma öyk(s(n(n aslında kavramın eksiklerini de ortaya koyar nitelikler taşıdığı d(ş(n(
l-
mektedir. ”u bakış açısı ile koruma ve yenileme planlarının hedefi olan “nkara Kalesini nasıl bir  geleceğin beklediği ve ”atı literat(r(nden farklı da olsa özg(n bir soylulaştırma öyk(s(nden söz edilip edilemeyeceği (zerinde duran bu çalışmada, Kalenin söz konusu literat(rle uyumlu olmayan  yönlerinin başka yollardan giderildiği, sınıflar arası bir yer

değiştirme şeklinde tanımlandığında ise soylulaştırmadan söz edilebileceği sonucuna ulaşılmaktadır.
Anahtar kelimeler:

“nkara Kalesi, tarihî kent merkezi, soylulaştırma, kentsel yerinden e
dilme

Abstract
The concept of gentrification, depending on how it is used, can overshadow the rent struggle. Therefore, one side should be determined before using that term. An original gentrification story can expose the missing part of the concept. With this perspective, it focused on whether we could be talking about the unique history of gentrification in particular for the Castle of Ankara. The castle is the goal of the renovation and conservation plan. It has been shown to comply with the concept of  gentrification in western literature. These discrepancies are resolved in different ways. If we define a displacement between classes we can talk about gentrification in Ankara Castle.
Keywords:
Ankara Castle, historical urban centre, gentrification, urban displacement

Resumen: El volumen recoge los criterios para el desarrollo del Plan de Barrios del Ayuntamiento de Barcelona elaborados por el Consejo Asesor del Plan. El volumen, editado por Oriol Nel·lo, presidente del Consejo, contiene aportaciones de Francisco Muñoz, Oriol Estela, Andreu Domingo, Marina Subirats, Carme Borrell, Lucía Artazcoz, Helena Cruz, Ismael Blanco, Carme Trilla, Pere Serra, Mercè Tatjer, Carlos Lobo, Ana Romero y Jaume Blasco.

Summary: The volume includes the criteria for the development of the Barcelona City Council's Neighborhood Plan drawn up by the Advisory Board of the Plan. The volume, edited by Oriol Nel·lo, President of the Council, contains contributions from Francesc Muñoz, Oriol Estela, Andreu Domingo, Marina Subirats, Carme Borrell, Lucía Artazcoz, Helena Cruz, Ismael Blanco, Carme Trilla, Pere Serra, Mercè Tatjer, Carles Llop, Ana Romero and Jaume Blasco.

In the Fall of 2014, Black Lives Matter protests erupted across the United States and the San Francisco Bay Area became the site of nightly demonstrations that deployed a range of disruptive practices and direct actions. The content and style of these protests reflected both the national political issues raised by the Black Lives Matter movement, and highly local and regional struggles over gentrification and displacement. In this article, I analyze these protests in relation to the regional political economy of the tech-industry, the real estate booms, and the attendant 'eviction epidemic' in the region. In doing so, I lay out an analysis of the relationship between policing and gen-trification in the Black Lives Matter protests in the Bay Area. In the first section, I analyze the regional political economy as the context in which these protests must be understood. In a second section, I argue that the protests created a regional protest geography that, in turn, was met by a regionalized repressive security state. Finally, I read the disruptive practices deployed by these protests as a series of complex and sophisticated contestations which embodied connections among policing, gentrification, and the regional political economy. As such, the Black Lives Matter protests produced an intersectional analysis and can be read as a regional uprising aimed to disrupt the security state.

Sustainable development aims to address economic, social, and environmental imperatives; yet, in practice, it often embodies a neoliberal market logic that reinforces inequalities. Thus, as the social work profession grapples with its role in advancing environmental sustainability, practice models must explicitly attend to social and economic justice. For example, environmental gentrification refers to situations in which the cleanup of contaminated land or the installation of environmental amenities intentionally or unintentionally catalyzes increased housing costs, thereby contributing to the displacement of vulnerable residents. With the goal of contributing to practice knowledge, we conducted a systematic review of peer-reviewed articles (1997−2017) to learn how community groups have responded to the threat of environmental gentrification. We found that community organizations employ a range of strategies, including blocking development, negotiating for protections, planning alternatives, and allying with gentrifiers. We conclude by exploring ethical implications and practice principles to help social workers engage in truly sustainable development.

The middle class is a key word in gentrification research, it is used extensively, and it is often part of the very definition of gentrification. But it is also used highly differently. This Intervention argues that the best way to grasp the middle class in the gentrification literature is synonymous with “anyone moving into a so-called gentrified area”, i.e. “newcomers” or “gentrifiers”. This, however, is not a proper definition of a social class. This Intervention also suggests that the capitalist class should rather be understood as the actual gentrifiers, but such an approach is incompatible with the existing gentrification discourse.

L’article aborda l’estudi de la gentrificació a la regió metropolitana de Barcelona, tot partint de la noció que aquesta forma part d’un fenomen d’abast més ampli: la segregació urbana. Així, el treball s’inicia amb una definició de carácter general del tema estudiat, per pasar tot seguit a exposar quins són els trets principals de la segregació residencial a l’àmbit metropolità barceloní. A continuación, s’analitzen diversos aspectes específics que condicionen l’evolució de les dinàmiques de gentrificació: el règim de tinença, l’evolució demográfica, la internacionalització de la ciutat, les polítiques publiques i l’organització de la ciutadania. L’article es clou amb l’enunciat de 28 propostes per a fer front a la segregació, la gentrificació i els seus efectes.

The comparison of the struggles unravelling in San Francisco and Valparaíso that these two incidents exemplify allows a cross-contextual analysis of what activism and resistance reveal in terms of processes of dispossession triggered by tourism capital flows. On the one hand, in the case of Valparaíso, the coordinated politics of tourism, in particular through the designation of some of the city’s historic districts as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, appear to have dramatically fuelled the gentrification of some of the city’s neighbourhoods (Jacquot 2005), such as Barón. On the other hand, San Francisco is currently experiencing what has been referred to as a ‘hyper-gentrification process’ (Brahinsky 2014) – in part caused by the so-called ‘Tech Boom 2.0’ (Opillard forthcoming). In this process, the existing housing crisis has been aggravated by the success of online short-term rental platforms such as Airbnb, through which landlords can profit from the growth of the ‘sharing economy’ and remove their properties from the regular rental market in order to rent them to visitors and tourists.

Depuis le début des années 90, de plus en plus de villes françaises rejoignent la course à l’envolée des prix immobiliers dans laquelle se sont déjà illustrées Londres, New York ou encore Toronto. S’y accompagne un phénomène désormais connu sous le nom de « gentrification ». Loin d’être un phénomène naturel, la gentrification doit être saisie comme un processus résultant de parti pris politiques, et placée dans un contexte de métropolisation. De Paris à Marseille, l’actualité récente nous rappelle qu’il s’agit d’une question brûlante pour nos communautés qui sont sur-représentées dans les quartiers populaires.

Urban fringe areas are well known for attracting clusters of creative people because of the availability of affordable studio space. The underused and vacant properties which are characteristic of such areas offer gaps in the urban fabric to initiate temporary uses. These create endless possibilities for the urban environment and contribute to revitalising the area without state expenditure. Temporary uses such as pop-up cafés, galleries and urban agriculture can provide the cultural edge to attract inward investment and stimulate urban regeneration. However, unmanaged regeneration can lead to gentrification, causing displacement of existing communities and the original initiators of change – therefore eradicating the cultural scene that made the urban area once attractive.

This research considers temporary uses as more than stop-gaps. It argues that they can secure permanence and continue to challenge the standard, commercially-driven form of urban development incurred by gentrification. Drawing from European precedents, this research seeks to explore the extent to which the ideas engendered by temporary uses can formalise amid regeneration in the UK, through the analysis of two case studies: Stour Space, London and the People’s Republic of Stokes Croft’s headquarters at 17-25 Jamaica Street, Bristol. The main findings suggested that community-led organisations should obtain the outright ownership of property, have a clear philosophy in the interests of the local community, and be able to financially self-sustain their activities. In doing so, such organisations will have the planning security, public support and finance to pursue bottom-up strategies that reflect desires of the local community and manage the impacts of gentrification.

1. What is tourism gentrification? 2. Indicators of the touristification in Lisbon 3. What are the major forces/causes of tourism gentrification in Lisbon? 4. What are the impacts of massive touristification in Lisbon´s historic center? 5. What can be done to resist or mitigate tourism gentrification? Some Policy Findings & Recommendations

This article — an excerpt from my book, Capital City, with elaborations on a number of key points — argues that the housing crises endemic to contemporary capitalism must be understood as a result of the concentration of global capital into real estate and the the re-orientation of state planning capacities around the demands of the real estate industry. The first half of the article explains the dimensions of the crisis in the US and the rise of "the real estate state." The second half explores policy alternatives to contemporary urban neoliberalism and the kinds of movements necessary to bring them about.

In both its historical Progressive Era roots and its contemporary manifestations, U.S. urban progressivism has evinced a contradictory tendency toward promoting the interests of capital and property while ostensibly protecting labor and tenants, thus producing policies that undermine its central claims. This article interrogates past and present appeals to urban progressive politics, particularly around housing and planning, and offers an in-depth case study of one of the most highly touted examples of the new urban progressivism: New York City’s recently adopted Mandatory Inclusionary Housing program. This case serves to identify the ways in which progressive rhetoric can disguise neoliberal policies. The article concludes with a discussion of legally viable housing policy alternatives that would challenge inequalities without producing gentrification. Given neoprogressivism’s ideological slipperiness, it is crucial for analysts, policymakers, and social movement actors to look beyond rhetorical claims to “progressive” politics and ask the questions: progress for whom, toward what?

Formen der Selbstorganisation unter dem Dach der LWB. Ideenskizze des Haus- und WagenRat e.V.  im Rahmen der LWB-online-Architekturwerkstatt NEUBAU 2015:
Flexibilität, Partizipation und Kooperation im Wohnungsneubau können nicht allein durch bauliche Lösungen (etwa Modulbauweise o.ä.) erreicht werden. Erst eine Herangehensweise, die das Soziale in den Blick nimmt, macht diese Ideen lebensfähig. Sie brauchen einen grundlegenden Wechsel des Organisationsmodells und der Herangehensweise, wie ein kommunales Wohnungsunternehmen wie die LWB ein Gebäude und dessen Bewohner_innenschaft betrachtet.
Lassen sich die Erfahrungen aus der Leipziger Szene selbstverwalteter Wohnprojekte aufnehmen und in den Rahmen einer kommunalen Wohnungsbaugesellschaft übertragen? Das Konzept beschreibt den Ansatz, mittels eines Hausvereins und mit diesem abgeschlossenen Generalmietvertrags den Bewohner_innen weitgehende Autonomie zu gewähren. Es streift dabei Themen wie solidarische Mietmodelle, Hausfonds und einen „Stadtteilgroschen“.

This book addresses the touristic valorisation of areas of urban poverty, tourist’s role in making slums into must-see attractions, places of tourist intervention and attention, places of discovery and meaningful experience. Tourism in slums takes the form of organized tours, hospitality and other services provided to tourists as well as the related imaginaries and representations of slums as they circulate among tourists.

Based on two years of research in Rio de Janeiro, Bangkok, in various cities in South Africa, Kenya and India, the book develops a comprehensive account of tourist valorisation in slum tourism in the global south.  Slum tourism is not a new phenomenon and has been discussed to some extent both in historical and contemporary perspective. The book, building on existing research, points to aspects and effects of slum tourism that have so far been overlooked:

1) It extents existing scholarship on tourism’s role in urban regeneration and gentrification and it sheds light on these processes in cities in the developing world and in slums. 
2) It looks at tourism’s role in local politics, in lifting the stigma of slums, in helping to overcome slum’s isolation and in improving security.  It shows how slum residents sometimes struggle with (and sometimes against) tourists for their right to the city.
3) It shows how tourism has become part of urban policy schemes that attempt to harness its potential role in upgrading and improving slums.
4) It points to the emergence of new forms of international development, where slum tourism is part of new ‘experience-based’ and ‘peer to peer’ approaches to funding and organisation.

Reviews:
http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/africaatlse/2016/08/12/book-review-slumming-it-the-tourist-valorisation-of-urban-poverty-by-fabian-frenzel/

http://www.environmentandurbanization.org/slumming-it-tourist-valorization-urban-poverty

The chaper deals with the historical, spatial and social specificity of the gentrification of Rome. It compare an hybridized gentrification in Rome with New York and it concludes arguing for considering gentrifing neighbourhood as political spaces capable of a neighbourhood polity based on solidarity.

As áreas centrais das aglomerações urbanas contemporâneas são peças-chave para análise e compreensão dos inúmeros conflitos sociais constituintes da sociedade capitalista atual. O centro da cidade de São Paulo, apesar de dotado de uma complexa rede de infra-estrutura e serviços, encontra-se subutilizado, perfurado por uma infinidade de vazios. São milhares de imóveis desocupados na área central da cidade. As classes sociais menos favorecidas ocupam as ruínas desses edifícios abandonados numa operação de reconquista do espaço urbano do qual são constantemente excluídas, num processo de reivindicação da cidade. No entanto, a propriedade permanece protegida pelo Estado, e seus ocupantes são despejados através de ações de reintegração de posse. A observação de todos esses deslocamentos de forças demonstra, segundo Arantes Neto, uma série de territórios interpenetrados em confronto, que constituem no espaço urbano uma Guerra dos Lugares1. A partir desse conceito, pretende-se compreender como os espaços urbanos residuais centrais são gerados, quem os ocupa, de que forma são ocupados, e como acontece sua posterior desarticulação. Para o desenvolvimento da pesquisa foi delimitado como recorte analítico quatro ocupações de edifícios abandonados localizadas no bairro da Luz, centro da cidade de São Paulo: Ed. Plínio Ramos, Ed. Prestes Maia, Ed. Paula Souza e Ed. São Vito.

1. Introduction to Rio’s Favelas, Their Qualities and Historic Role in the City
2. The Olympic Threat to Affordable Housing in Rio de Janeiro
3. The Potential of Community Land Trusts as a “Middle Way”
4. The Inspiring Case of Puerto Rico Shines a Path for Rio

El capital inmobiliario impulsa las reconfiguraciones espaciales que acontecen en las zonas centrales de la Ciudad de México bajo un discurso de revitalización y renovación urbana, junto a nuevas prácticas de consumo y formas de habitar que conllevan procesos de exclusión socio-espacial a través de la sustitución de población de bajos recursos.
En dicho proceso destaca el papel de las empresas inmobiliarias que presentan un especial interés en los espacios urbanos e inmuebles deteriorados, que junto a políticas públicas impulsadas por gobiernos locales y bajo un discurso disfrazado de “renovación, “revitalización” y “rescate” de los mismos, deja capitalizar a las inmobiliarias un valor por el cual no invierten. Las prácticas anteriores reproducen un estilo de habitar y consumir en el espacio urbano que propicia un nuevo modo de vida, y a su vez promueve la llegada de nuevos habitantes de clases medias atraídos por unas prácticas de consumo y estilo de vida de élite en los espacios reconfigurados.
El barrio Escandón se abona a un sistema de barrios emblemáticos en el discurso de la gentrificación: La Condesa y La Roma; los cuales han resaltado por un complejo y conflictivo proceso de transformación.
El presente trabajo se enfocará en tres ejes útiles para explicar el proceso de reconfiguración urbana (gentrificación). Los ejes que se abordaran son: I) la transformación de espacios por parte del capital inmobiliario, II) la transformación del espacio público y III) las nuevas prácticas de consumo y el estilo de vida. La investigación se apoyó en imágenes recolectadas con la herramienta google street view. Dicha herramienta, cuenta con fechas precisas de recolección de fotos del periodo de septiembre del 2008 a febrero del 2015, lo cual permite una revisión detallada y temporalmente exacta para ser comparable en dos puntos temporales distintos.