Procesos de recaulificación y relegación en la ciudad de Buenos Aires.

Repensando la noción de ciudad-fragmento y la despolitización de lo urbano.

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to discuss and delve into some of the theoretical perspectives about contemporary cities which have been created around the fragmentation category. In our opinion, the numerous studies based on this concept, have favoured a depoliticized and segmented vision of the metropolis (in spatial as well as social terms), and at the same time had aimed at describing the dynamics that –as in the case of gentrification, requalification and relegation among others– had taken place simultaneously and separately, thus depicting different and clearly delimited territories. By virtue of the above-mentioned, the metropolis would become a juxtaposition of isolated and uniform pieces, independent and unconnected, which would be strongly evoking the image of an exploded city. All throughout these pages, we will aim at rethinking and challenging these approaches, considering the ethnographic research being developed in contexts of requalification and relegation in the city of Buenos Aires. This work experience in the field led us not only to reflect on the inevitable political dimension of the current ways of “making city”, but also allowed us to establish links and interactions between the analysed processes and situations.