Tional Journal of Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment
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International Journal of Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment International Journal of Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment GENTRIF ICATION IN (RE)CONSTRUCTION: TALCA´S NEIGHBOURHOODS POST 2010 EARTHQUAKE Journal: International Journal of Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment Manuscript ID Draft Manuscript Type: Research Paper Earthquakes, Law and regulatory frameworks, Post disaster reconstruction, Keywords: Rehabilitation, Resilience, Social impact International Journal of Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment Page 1 of 25 International Journal of Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment 1 2 3 GENTRIFICATION IN (RE)CONSTRUCTION: TALCA´S NEIGHBOURHOODS POST 2010 4 5 EARTHQUAKE 6 7 8 Purpose: This paper aims to explore the complex relationship between post-earthquake 9 10 reconstruction processes and gentrification in neighborhoods of intermediate cities, 11 calling on the critical role of recovery strategies in altering neighborhoods physical and 12 social urban structure identities. 13 Design/methodology/approach: The paper uses a case study; the reconstruction process 14 15 of the neighborhoods post 2010 earthquake in Talca, Chile and analyses in a six year 16 timeline its socio-spatial changes. The latter based on mixed methods; primary data from 17 strategic interviews with key stakeholders, cadasters of land value and real estate housing 18 projects and neighborhood polls, and secondary data from official documents such as 19 20 plans and policies. 21 Findings: Findings suggest patterns of incipient gentrification are an outcome of the 22 reconstruction strategies. Acknowledging the intricate interplay among urban neoliberal 23 conditions, historical heritage and identities, and post disaster recovery, inadequate 24 25 housing subsidies and normative plans are causing the displacement of hundreds of 26 historical residents and resistance, arrival of newcomers with higher debt capacity in new 27 housing typologies, and increasing land value. Process related to neoliberal politics of 28 state led new-build gentrification. 29 30 Originality/value: Gentrification and reconstruction are both processes that modify urban 31 structures, society and perceptions, and yet their socio spatial effects have never been 32 studied in a cumulative and integrated manner, even more, in intermediate cities. The 33 value is to rethink the critical role of recovery strategies in halting and containing 34 35 gentrification in fast transforming secondary cities. 36 Keywords: gentrification, reconstruction, earthquake, intermediate cities, historical 37 neighborhoods. 38 Paper type: research paper 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 1 International Journal of Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment International Journal of Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment Page 2 of 25 1 2 3 1. Introduction 4 5 6 7 8 The two defining terminologies that lead this work, gentrification and reconstruction, do 9 certainly seem epistemologically and disciplinary distant. However, being both social 10 11 phenomena, they share several common elements that help us set up the theoretical 12 13 framework, which underpins the work presented here. At first they both seem to 14 15 represent emergent regimes of ‘fast’ urban policies, not only because of their rapid 16 17 emergence but also due to their capacity to travel quickly transnationally and among 18 19 professional circuits as well as injecting fast and rapid changes in the social reality (Inzulza- 20 21 Contardo, 2014). 22 23 24 25 A tangential point can be represented in the expansion, especially in disaster sociology, 26 studies of market-centred disaster recovery and rebuilding projects underscored by 27 28 neoliberalism. Naomi Klein’s ‘disaster capitalism’ describes the ways in which economic 29 30 meltdown, wars, disaster and other traumas across the globe have been routinely 31 32 subjected to further ‘shocks’ treatments by governments and their corporate allies since 33 34 the early seventies to transform economies into laboratories for private entrepreneurship 35 36 and free market forces (Klein, 2005). Gentrification is not far from these ´shocks´, 37 38 considering it is “one of the spatial facets most typical of the urban neoliberalism imposed 39 40 in cities” (Janoschka and Casgrain, 2013, p. 24). 41 42 43 Gentrification´s evolution from Glass´s (1964) original sporadically phenomenon of 44 45 displacement of working class tenants by middle class homebuyers in the historical district 46 47 of Islington, London to a systematic global practice of property profit exploitation (or rent 48 49 monopoly) by investors and speculators (Harvey, 2008) denotes the above A global 50 51 exercise referred as the ´third wave of gentrification´-anchoring at last- Latin American 52 53 cities to the practice of transferring state regulations and functions to private agents 54 55 (Smith, 2002) in the name of urban regeneration. For Lees (2000), leading ultimately to 56 57 wider geographies of gentrification of multiple actions of indirect and direct displacement 58 59 60 2 International Journal of Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment Page 3 of 25 International Journal of Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment 1 2 3 altering class-based nature of wider neighbourhoods (Davidson and Lees, 2010). 4 5 Alterations that for Latin-American contexts spatially constructed under social polarisation 6 7 and inequality can create higher impacts on territorial disparities. 8 9 10 11 Thus, when cities centers are affected by earthquakes, great quantity of empty sites, real 12 13 estate speculation and active government intervention for housing recovery, create the 14 15 perfect scenario for brownfield redevelopments portrayed as ´new-build gentrification´ 16 17 (Davidson and Lees, 2010) This is increasingly evident when reconstruction strategies are 18 physically biased in the provision of housing and infrastructural services (MINVU, 2013) or 19 20 they overlook the safeguard of civic capital (Mitlin and Satterthwaite, 2013). Recovery 21 22 scholars agree to see post disaster as risky moments that increase the opportunity to 23 24 invest in new projects following market forces and property speculation (Ozerdem and 25 26 Rufini, 2013), rather than implementing strategies to adequately address the physical, 27 28 social and psychological effects of disasters (Mansilla, 2011; CEPAL, 2010) 29 30 31 32 In this light, intermediate cities do seem, not only for their territorial relevance and their 33 specific attractive elements, more subjected to the combined transformations of 34 35 reconstruction and gentrification. Centrality, value of localities and manageable distances, 36 37 make intermediate cities, the object of desire for speculative development that also 38 39 seems to be part of reconstruction policies. The last of critical concern when considering 40 41 more than 48% of the urban population lives in mid-size cities of less than 500,000 42 43 inhabitants (Bolay y Rabinovich, 2004). 44 45 46 Within this context, the review of the six-year timeline of the reconstruction process in 47 48 Talca after the M8.8 earthquake and tsunami on 27 February 2010 in Chile can helps to 49 50 disentangle the complex and cumulative effects of ’gentrification under (re)construction‘ 51 52 as the paper tittle suggests. Denoting how neoliberal reconstruction policies supported by 53 54 real estate market pressures can cause the displacement of many original residents of 55 historical neighbourhoods to the peripheries replacing them with newcomers in newly 56 57 built typologies triggering hints of gentrification (Letelier and Boyco, 2013). Evidence that 58 59 60 3 International Journal of Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment International Journal of Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment Page 4 of 25 1 2 3 suggest Janoschka et al. (2014) signs of neoliberal politics of state led new-build 4 5 gentrification (Davidson and Lees, 2010). 6 7 8 9 The above, based on gathering of secondary data through the revision of state policies, 10 11 official reconstruction reports and diverse local media reports, etc. as well as undergrad 12 13 thesis developed under this research project. What more, primary data lifted through 14 15 author’s fieldwork in 2015, conducting interviews with key stakeholders in the 16 17 reconstruction process, real estate project cadastres, and surveys in six historical 18 neighbourhoods that presented these new real estate projects post 2010. The narrative of 19 20 a reconstruction process when coupled with the effects of incipient gentrification in an 21 22 intermediate city, is then offering the possibility to recalibrate the reflection around the 23 24 potential of social cleansing and the physical transformations that erode and negate the 25 26 very meaning and cultural place assets of intermediate cities. 27 28 29 30 2. Gentrification in (re)construction 31 32 33 2.1 Relating terms 34 35 36 37 Gentrification and reconstruction both seem to represent post-ideological terms as it 38 39 means they can be co-opted by those in any part of the political spectrum. It is difficult to 40 41 justify their nature of “ameliorment”, “betterness”, progress “future”, therefore sharing 42 43 the same communicative effects in their policy determinations. Although variegated, in 44 45 terms of the material form, the process of neoliberlization has evolved into two pivotal 46 47 and complementary strategies of destruction and creation that