TITLE:
Cities and Gentrification in Contemporary Brazil
AUTHORS:
Rogerio Proenca Leite
KEYWORDS:
Gentrification, Consumption, Urban Spaces, Cultural Heritage, Cultural Commodity
JOURNAL NAME:
Current Urban Studies,
Vol.3 No.3,
August
18,
2015
ABSTRACT: This article provides an analysis of heritage policies in Brazil, focusing in particular on the emergence
of gentrification processes, which have transformed cultural heritage into a cultural commodity,
adapting historic cities to the new market logic. The private sector’s increasing involvement
in heritage policy management has led to a complex alteration in the concept of heritage
from a “symbolic asset” to a “cultural commodity”. This process entails recognizing forms of interaction
based on consumption and presumes forms of heritage conservation based on market demands.
The aim here is to discuss the impacts of these processes on the shaping of public sociabilities
and ideas in relation to the use of city spaces.