Centros históricos y gentrificación: claves analíticas desde el discurso crítico

At the end of the 1990s, analyses of gentrification processes emerged in various historic centres in Latin America. Since then, case studies have been produced in the region which use this anglicism to try to explain a set of socio-spatial transformations which in turn accompany the processes of patrimonialisation of historic centres. These works are characterised by a heterogeneous, and in some cases even ambiguous, use of the concept. Faced with this situation, the aim of this article is to propose a set of analytical keys which allow the study of gentrification in historic centres from the framework of the geographical-critical discourse. To this end, the theoretical bases of the critical discourse in its relationship with the theory of the production of space are set out, from which the categories of historic centre and gentrification are delimited. On the basis of work carried out on the historic centres of Quito, Salvador de Bahía and Mexico City, a discussion was developed which enabled the formation of a solid nucleus made up of ten guidelines for analysis. Finally, the importance of critical discourse for analysing the gentrification of historic centres is highlighted, as part of the structural logic of capital accumulation which implies the production of space in contemporary reality.