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Friday, November 25, 2011

GENTRIFICATION: IS IT POSSIBLE TO AVOID IT?

by Julio Cesar Ribeiro Sampaio

The conservation of urban areas is nowadays part of the urban policies of the majority of cities. The framework of this subsection of the conservation of cultural property is made of a complex structure of principles, guidelines and standards. The production of this basic system is a result of a long discussion that includes the assessment of paradigmatic and/or polemic issues. This paper aims to examine one of these controversial issues: the concept of gentrification, which is regarded as the displacement of indigenous people in urban conservation plans. The focus of this analysis is the effectiveness of what the international conservation documents recommend about this topic.
This work starts with an explanation of gentrification by the specialized conservation literature, which includes the international charters, official guidance, practices, thoughts and views of individuals. Contributions from urban investigations especially related to urban segregation are also analyzed. Afterward, especial attention is dedicated to the antagonisms between two representative experiences: the revitalization of Bologna City Centre and the Marais region (Paris). An analysis of the secondary sources about the persistence of gentrification, even after publication of the international documents correlated with this theme, begins the next section, which also includes the study of Covent Garden (London), SoHo (New York), Pelourinho (Salvador) and Bairro Alto (Lisbon) conservation schemes.
Alternatives to avoid gentrification are approached in the last part of the work. Some proposals are contemplated despite perception of the extent of this problem’s complexity and complications. It is presumed that it is possible to impede displacement by strategies that prioritize solution of the social and economic deficiencies of the places vulnerable to this phenomenon. It is concluded that the theoretical, methodological and practical implications of gentrification demand the elaboration of a specific international document of conservation.


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