A city for all? Public policy and resistance to gentrification in the southern neighborhoods of Buenos Aires

Abstract

In this paper, we analyze grassroots movements’ resistance to gentrification processes in the southern area of Buenos Aires. We first review the limitations of the concept of gentrification when applied to the transformation of Latin American cities. We then examine the relationship between gentrification and social class in order to explain why and how local residents and grassroots organizations mount resistance to gentrification in three pericentral neighborhoods in the southern portion of Buenos Aires. Contemporary changes in these neighborhoods are driven by (1) the promotion of neoliberal urban renewal policies, and (2) the genesis and development of Law 341, a program that provides low-income people and organizations with loans for housing construction and renovation, and (3) the Programa de Autogestión de la Vivienda (the Self-Managed Housing Program), which supports cooperative-style housing management. Through two cases, we examine how the actions and strategies of grassroots organizations have countered some of the effects of gentrification in the South of Buenos Aires.