Participation and market-driven development

Based in the Ciudad Autonoma de Buenos Aires, the paper examines two processes that have a high local impact in the argentine capital, the construction of high- rise housing in middle- and upper middle-class neighbourhoods and the renewal and gentrification of the historical inner city. Both processes affect different strata of the population in very distinctive ways but ultimately challenge their right to remain within their neighbourhoods under self-chosen conditions.

In both cases, urban planning is guided by a laissez-faire attitude towards private investment and market-driven development, only partially framing or regulating it. As a consequence, options for participation are very limited, causing local inhabitants to organize, voice their claims and find other ways to challenge current urban development. The different strata of the population affected employ very different strategies, which are linked closely to their own resources and power relations both within their neighbourhoods as well as with political institutions.

As local inhabitants try to achieve the same goal, to apply their “right to the city” in order to achieve a more socially sustainable urban development for them, the paper shows that the on-going restructuring of the Argentine capital does not only have adverse effects but also triggers new modes of participation and resistance which might allow to counterbalance current forms of urban development.