Gentrification-Displacement-Dispossession: Key Urban Processes in Latin American cities

This article offers a detailed analysis of key urban processes that have been consolidated in different Latin American cities over the XXI century; they fundamentally consist of a reconquest of central and peri-central areas by real estate capital. The metamorphosis of the consolidated city has become apparent thanks to the regular use of three central terms: gentrification, displacement and dispossession. Through the conceptualization of the notion of displacement as a material, political, symbolic and psychological process, this paper builds a theoretical understanding of the phenomena that lead to the displacement of popular subjectivities from the central and peri-central areas of Latin American cities. Such a premise is used to comparatively analyze the situation of five cities –Mexico City, Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, Santiago and Quito– and categorize the different displacement and dispossession processes. This discussion also analyzes the meaning of territorial reconfiguration in relation to spatial injustice and the discourses on the “Right to the City”, thus providing a political understanding of the 21st century key urban processes.