Renovación urbana y gentrificación post-catástrofe en Concepción: el caso Aurora de Chile

Abstract

The study of Aurora de Chile reveals the existence of a gentrification process associated to urban renewal policies and natural disasters –earthquakes- in the riverfront neighbourhood of Aurora, as symbolic tools that justify the development of urban operations that are being implemented without participatory strategies. Through a methodology based on the revision of urban planning instruments, ethnographic observations, interviews to key informants and neighbour conversation groups, the different phases of the urban renewal process were analyzed, noting the arguments related to planning and reconstruction, and how these symbolic constructions determine the expression, of the different actors involved, regarding the city and its post catastrophe development. Finally it is proposed that a strategy of urban renewal of the riverfront exists, and that it uses the earthquake as an opportunity to trigger the acceleration of joint public and private projects, but it’s not made explicit in an urban planning project. Thus, naturalizing the need that the inhabitants of this urban village “sacrifice” part of their land and identity for the good and future development of the city.