The coloniality of UNESCO’s heritage urban landscapes: Heritage process and transnational gentrification in Cuenca, Ecuador

Abstract

The article analyses heritage conservation and urban upgrading in Cuenca, Ecuador, in order to reflect on global inequality and rights to the city at the crossroads of transnational lifestyle mobilities and the globalisation of real estate markets. Processes of gentrification in Cuenca reproduce colonial social relations and marginalise the popular economic activities of informal vendors. Under the auspices of UNESCO World Heritage designation, the Inter-American Development Bank and successive municipal governments have sought to increase property values in the historic El Centro neighbourhood. Rather than relying on a local middle-class return to the city, heritage urban upgrading in Cuenca is dependent on higher-income global middle classes attracted to the city’s historic urbanism. The subsequent higher-income appropriation of urban improvements takes the form of dispossession of use and exchange values of lower-income groups, especially of informal vendors.