Autor/es
Descripción
ver mas
Colaborador
Romé, Natalia
Tissot, Sylvie
Materias
Spatial Coverage
Temporal Coverage
2003-2013
Idioma
spa
Extent
523 p.
Derechos
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
Atribución-NoComercial-SinDerivadas 2.0 Genérica (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Formato
application/pdf
Identificador
Cobertura
1004049
Barracas (neighborhood)
2003-2013
Abstract
This thesis studies the process -still unfinished- by which Barracas, placed at the southeast of the city of Buenos Aires (Argentine), went from appearing in the public discourse as part of a historically characterized as degraded, dangerous and forgotten ―south‖, to be mentioned as a neighborhood in full ―renaissance‖ since the beginning of the real estate boom in 2003. This thesis focuses on a central process of its urban, social, economic and symbolic re-qualification: its patrimonialization, understood as the process by which practices, buildings and areas tend to become representatives of neighborhood identity and memory under the category of ―heritage‖.
During the period of the real estate boom and mainly since 2005, Barracas goes through a tension between the arrival of new real estate investments that involve the demolition of pre-existing buildings and a process of change of image where the area begins to emerge as a ―historical district‖, driven by a heterogeneous set of actors (such as real estate developers, local government agencies, politicians, tourist operators or local associations). This change of image is done through discursive operations of separation of Barracas from to the south constructed as a ―socially problematic area‖, urban and cultural interventions on the south seen as a ―historically forgotten part of the city‖, and symbolic appropriations of the characteristics of the south as a ―reservoir of authenticity‖, the latter in the form of a patrimonialization process.
In this context, since 2007 an urban conflict emerged in Barracas, when the neighborhood association ―Proteger Barracas‖ rejected demolitions and construction of higher buildings (―towers‖) in the name of ―neighborhood heritage‖. This process shows the existence of strong disputes between the different actors involved in the requalification process around the concept of heritage, its scope and the legitimated subjects to say what should be considered heritage and what should not. These struggles, which have a central role in the definition of the direction of the process of requalification of the neighborhood as such, are however based on a double consensus underlying the position of all the actors: the first one assumes the existence of a principle of separation between the patrimonial and the nonpatrimonial, and the other one affirms that Barracas is a heritage neighborhood. This thesis studies the conditions of possibility and the development of this ideological-discursive configuration based on heritage, also focusing on its implications in the process of requalification of Barracas.
The research analyzes different discursive manifestations that build Barracas as a heritage neighborhood, taken from field observations, in-depth interviews, photographic records, local and national newspaper material, official documents, legislative material, regulations and specific literature in urban and patrimonial matters, books and other materials produced on Barracas, statistical indicators, folders of urban and cultural projects, tourist brochures and Internet sites of relevant actors, among others, produced since the 1990s.
The analysis is based on two main theoretical approaches. On the one hand, studies in communication, understood as those dedicated to the analysis of ideological formations, discourses and constitution of subjectivities, as well as to the political nature inherent to these processes. This approach focuses on the historical conformation and the practical effectiveness of the discourses and ideological formations on heritage in the concrete conjuncture of study. On the other hand, the contributions of a critical urban sociology allow us to approach this process of urban transformation taking into account the conflicting conformation of social spaces, where the struggles of classification on heritage (oriented to establish those principles of division of the world that make the establishment or reproduction of distinctions between groups and places) are central in shaping identities and interests.
The current requalification is possible in the crossing of different processes: the establishment of Barracas in the 20th century as an equipment and industrial area, the closing of factories since the 1970s, the expansive dynamics of the real estate sector in the city after 2002 and the consolidation since the mid-1990s of a political-administrative imperative of ―revitalization of the south‖ of the city, which has strongly appealed to culture. The latter is studied through the historicization of the emergence on the international agenda of organizations like UNESCO of heritage as a discursive object during the second half of the 20th century. This emergence is in turn overdetermined in the case of the City of Buenos Aires by two local processes: the place given to neighborhood life and to ordinary people‘s memory after the return of democracy in 1983 and the projects of successive city governments to build a ―city-brand‖ after 1996.
However, these processes are not enough to explain the process of patrimonialization of Barracas: many scattered works of cultural and heritage valorization from the 1980s until today lead by local actors and newcomers (cultural centers, restaurants or tourist routes), were also decisive in the translation of the neighborhood memory into the language of heritage. Its study shows that heritage can acquire divergent meanings (ranging from the moralization of the uses of urban space to the conversion of certain signs of identity into economic and symbolic resources) that may function in dissimilar strategies.
This dispersion contrasts with a trend to unification of the meaning of Barracas historical identity around the ―industrial heritage‖ (rather than other conceptions of heritage), led since 2005 by real estate developers in charge of the refunctionalization of former factories as offices and high-end housing, and their allies. The roles of the interior design exhibition ―Casa FOA‖ (held four times in the neighborhood between 2005 and 2011) and the ―Design District‖ dependent of the city government (created in 2013 around the Metropolitan Design Center, which operates on the southern boundary of Barracas since 2001), are decisive in the aestheticization of the industrial landscape and in the emergence of industrial heritage as an emblem of the district.
Finally, the analysis of the struggle of ―Proteger Barracas‖ against demolitions, ―towers‖ and ―real estate speculation‖, shows how, faced with what is experienced as a threat to the neighborhood identity and the lifestyle of its residents, both that definition of ―heritage‖ restricted to industrial architecture and those subjects legitimized to indicate it are criticized. Heritage definition is instead refocused on ―little houses‖, and the ―neighbor‖ identity -of long standing in the public space of the River Plate- reaches the center of the scene. Although the struggle led by ―Proteger Barracas‖ may appear as strictly defensive, it is argued that it contributes to the requalification of the neighborhood through the reinforcement of its image as a ―heritage district‖ and also through the achievements obtained in terms of urban regulations.
The existence of an urban conflict around ―heritage‖ indicates the contradiction between the dominant modes of producing urban space as a commodity and the vitality of a heritage ideology, which, as well as participating in processes of commodification of culture, also grants a renewed importance to city memory and identity, which might then become the subject of complaints when they are perceived as threatened.
During the period of the real estate boom and mainly since 2005, Barracas goes through a tension between the arrival of new real estate investments that involve the demolition of pre-existing buildings and a process of change of image where the area begins to emerge as a ―historical district‖, driven by a heterogeneous set of actors (such as real estate developers, local government agencies, politicians, tourist operators or local associations). This change of image is done through discursive operations of separation of Barracas from to the south constructed as a ―socially problematic area‖, urban and cultural interventions on the south seen as a ―historically forgotten part of the city‖, and symbolic appropriations of the characteristics of the south as a ―reservoir of authenticity‖, the latter in the form of a patrimonialization process.
In this context, since 2007 an urban conflict emerged in Barracas, when the neighborhood association ―Proteger Barracas‖ rejected demolitions and construction of higher buildings (―towers‖) in the name of ―neighborhood heritage‖. This process shows the existence of strong disputes between the different actors involved in the requalification process around the concept of heritage, its scope and the legitimated subjects to say what should be considered heritage and what should not. These struggles, which have a central role in the definition of the direction of the process of requalification of the neighborhood as such, are however based on a double consensus underlying the position of all the actors: the first one assumes the existence of a principle of separation between the patrimonial and the nonpatrimonial, and the other one affirms that Barracas is a heritage neighborhood. This thesis studies the conditions of possibility and the development of this ideological-discursive configuration based on heritage, also focusing on its implications in the process of requalification of Barracas.
The research analyzes different discursive manifestations that build Barracas as a heritage neighborhood, taken from field observations, in-depth interviews, photographic records, local and national newspaper material, official documents, legislative material, regulations and specific literature in urban and patrimonial matters, books and other materials produced on Barracas, statistical indicators, folders of urban and cultural projects, tourist brochures and Internet sites of relevant actors, among others, produced since the 1990s.
The analysis is based on two main theoretical approaches. On the one hand, studies in communication, understood as those dedicated to the analysis of ideological formations, discourses and constitution of subjectivities, as well as to the political nature inherent to these processes. This approach focuses on the historical conformation and the practical effectiveness of the discourses and ideological formations on heritage in the concrete conjuncture of study. On the other hand, the contributions of a critical urban sociology allow us to approach this process of urban transformation taking into account the conflicting conformation of social spaces, where the struggles of classification on heritage (oriented to establish those principles of division of the world that make the establishment or reproduction of distinctions between groups and places) are central in shaping identities and interests.
The current requalification is possible in the crossing of different processes: the establishment of Barracas in the 20th century as an equipment and industrial area, the closing of factories since the 1970s, the expansive dynamics of the real estate sector in the city after 2002 and the consolidation since the mid-1990s of a political-administrative imperative of ―revitalization of the south‖ of the city, which has strongly appealed to culture. The latter is studied through the historicization of the emergence on the international agenda of organizations like UNESCO of heritage as a discursive object during the second half of the 20th century. This emergence is in turn overdetermined in the case of the City of Buenos Aires by two local processes: the place given to neighborhood life and to ordinary people‘s memory after the return of democracy in 1983 and the projects of successive city governments to build a ―city-brand‖ after 1996.
However, these processes are not enough to explain the process of patrimonialization of Barracas: many scattered works of cultural and heritage valorization from the 1980s until today lead by local actors and newcomers (cultural centers, restaurants or tourist routes), were also decisive in the translation of the neighborhood memory into the language of heritage. Its study shows that heritage can acquire divergent meanings (ranging from the moralization of the uses of urban space to the conversion of certain signs of identity into economic and symbolic resources) that may function in dissimilar strategies.
This dispersion contrasts with a trend to unification of the meaning of Barracas historical identity around the ―industrial heritage‖ (rather than other conceptions of heritage), led since 2005 by real estate developers in charge of the refunctionalization of former factories as offices and high-end housing, and their allies. The roles of the interior design exhibition ―Casa FOA‖ (held four times in the neighborhood between 2005 and 2011) and the ―Design District‖ dependent of the city government (created in 2013 around the Metropolitan Design Center, which operates on the southern boundary of Barracas since 2001), are decisive in the aestheticization of the industrial landscape and in the emergence of industrial heritage as an emblem of the district.
Finally, the analysis of the struggle of ―Proteger Barracas‖ against demolitions, ―towers‖ and ―real estate speculation‖, shows how, faced with what is experienced as a threat to the neighborhood identity and the lifestyle of its residents, both that definition of ―heritage‖ restricted to industrial architecture and those subjects legitimized to indicate it are criticized. Heritage definition is instead refocused on ―little houses‖, and the ―neighbor‖ identity -of long standing in the public space of the River Plate- reaches the center of the scene. Although the struggle led by ―Proteger Barracas‖ may appear as strictly defensive, it is argued that it contributes to the requalification of the neighborhood through the reinforcement of its image as a ―heritage district‖ and also through the achievements obtained in terms of urban regulations.
The existence of an urban conflict around ―heritage‖ indicates the contradiction between the dominant modes of producing urban space as a commodity and the vitality of a heritage ideology, which, as well as participating in processes of commodification of culture, also grants a renewed importance to city memory and identity, which might then become the subject of complaints when they are perceived as threatened.
Título obtenido
Doctora de la Universidad de Buenos Aires en Ciencias Sociales
Doctora en Sociología
Institución otorgante
Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Sociales
Université Paris 8