Latin American Gentrification? Notes for Discussion

Abstract

Even though the concept of gentrification was used in the 1960s, it is until the development of the theories by Smith and Ley, at the end of the 1970s, that several empirical works in the Anglo-Saxon world are started. In Latin America, the empirical works are developed, in a remarkable way, since the first decade of the 21st century. Several theories that explain the late conduction of empirical works about gentrification in Latin American cities are discussed, while showing the most important critics that have been made about the use of this concept. Finally, some characteristics of the gentrification processes in this region are reviewed.