Martín Cornejo Presbítero

The impact of gentrification on heritage-based identity 

New flows of money, information, and people worldwide have introduced new possibilities for investment, resulting in the reorganization of urban areas, particularly historic urban landscapes, which are now desirable by middle and high-income groups because of their uniqueness. To attract them, authorities, decision-makers, and urban planners undertake re-urbanization projects that re-create and re-construct embellished versions of the past and, in the process, displace and gentrify local communities. 

The academic discussion has addressed this phenomenon from two different angles. On the one side, there is an agreement that the global economy is inducing the commodification of cultural heritage. On the other side, it has been vastly documented that the re- urbanization of downtowns produces gentrification. However, less attention has been given to how gentrification transforms historic urban landscapes, and with it, it modifies heritage-based identity constructions. During re-urbanization, architects, urban planners, and decision-makers restore, destroy, and transform historic urban landscapes to re-create images of idealized fantasy places. Yet, as French philosopher Henry Lefebvre explains, space is more than the physical environment; it is a social product, a more layered dimension also constituted by how people interact, imagine, and think of space (Lefebvre, 1991b). This research pursues to understand how gentrification is transforming how communities live, perceive, and conceive historic urban landscapes. Who is being invited or excluded from them? And what are the implications of these changes for heritage-based identity constructions? To this end, I propose to analyze the socio-spatial transformation of historic urban landscapes due to gentrification and its consequences for heritage-based identity constructions.