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Industrial Heritage and Gentrification in Latin America

Patrimonio industrial y gentrificación en Latinoamérica

Patrimoine industriel et gentrification en Amérique latine

Patrimônio industrial e gentrificação na América Latina

Amerika n°30

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Abstract

This issue of Amerika magazine is dedicated to the transformation of industrial heritage into cultural industries, a phenomenon that has occurred in a similar way in various parts of Latin America, especially at the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century.

Announcement

Argument

It is often possible to find industrial areas on the outskirts of urban centers. In places with increasing urbanization, the urban sprawl quickly expands until it swallows up the industrial area, which unwittingly locates itself uncomfortably in a central location, causing various traffic problems and pollution. This forces the industry to look for a new periphery, to the new edges of the city, leaving behind large plots of land and abandoned industrial structures in the middle of the city. This implies not only urban reconfigurations, but also cultural ones that create new relationshiops between the center and the periphery.

The question of what to do with these spaces has led to their reappropriation as cultural centres, museums, parks and other proposals that reconfigure these spaces whose function was primarily the production of material goods for consumption. In this way, industrial heritage is added to other types of immovable cultural heritage that have traditionally been protected in these countries, such as monuments, archaeological sites, and architectural ensembles. This trend began in industrialized countries, as emblematic example being the Tate Modern in England, built using the structure of an old power station, and has now become the largest contemporary art museum in the world. However, in the early nineties this has also resonated in Latin America, such as the Fundidora Park in Monterrey (Mexico), the Industrial Cultural Landscape of Fray Bentos (Uruguay) or the Historic Centre of Antonina (Brazil), among many other examples.

This phenomenon is associated with others such as urbanization and the so-called “gentrification,” a concept coined in 1964 by the English sociologist Ruth Glass to describe a very particular phenomenon in England: the displacement of lower-class people due to the arrival of middle-class people in their neighborhoods. It is currently under discussion whether or not the concept can be applied to Latin American contexts, but there are notable parallels.

Studies that address these issues can take into account many topics such as demographics, cultural industries, roads, culture and economy. Therefore, it is a rich niche for cultural studies, intertextuality, urban anthropology and social cartographies.

In this future issue the following issues wll be of interst to us :

- What differences exist between the naming of industrial heritage in Europe or the United States versus its Latin American counterparts? Do they obey similar phenomena? What particular challenges does this phenomenon face in Latin America?

- How are urban spaces culturally re-signified due to the expansion of cities and the relocation of industrial centers?

- What social dynamics are at work in this reconfiguration of urbanization and culture? What effects do they have?

- What interests are behind the naming of industrial heritage? What role does tourism play?

- What role does aesthetics play in the reconfiguration of an industrial space into a cultural venue? How are spaces, appearance, materials and architecture repurposed? Do building materials and spatial design shape the appropriation and use of the site?

We will also carefully consider all proposals that do not fall into these areas, but that discuss these topics.

Submission guidelines

We are also interested in articles for our Miscellany, Interviews, Miscellany/Opinions and Reviews sections. Guidelines for authors regarding the presentation of texts can be found here.

Abstracts should be sent to cellam-amerika@univ-rennes2.fr. They should contain a maximum of 150 words, five keywords, and the name of the author and his/her university affiliation. Abstracts and articles should be written in one of the four languages ​​of Amerika: Spanish, French, English or Portuguese. The abstract must be in the same language as the article and one other language used by the journal (preferably English).

Publication schedule

February 15th 2025: submission of the abstracts

on the following adress : cellam-amerika@univ-rennes2.fr

  • February 20th : response from the editorial committee
  • April 1st: submission of articles for evaluation
  • End of june/begging of july 2025: publication of the issue

Scientific Committee

  • Anais Fabriol (Université de Rennes 2),
  • Miguel Lozano (UABC),
  • Néstor Ponce (Rennes 2)

Places

  • Rennes, France (35)

Keywords

  • géographie culturelle, études culturelles, études urbaines, représentation, gentrification, patrimoine

Contact(s)

  • Anais Fabriol
    courriel : cellam-amerika [at] univ-rennes2 [dot] fr

Reference Urls

License

CC0-1.0 This announcement is licensed under the terms of Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal.

To cite this announcement

« Industrial Heritage and Gentrification in Latin America », Call for papers, Calenda, Published on Monday, January 27, 2025, https://doi.org/10.58079/13623

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