Patrimonial imaginaries in urban reconversion processes. Puerto Norte, Rosario, Argentina

Abstract

Progressive commercialization spaces and urban symbols are among the phenomena that characterize cities in the context of neoliberalism. The patrimony has a prominent role as a discursive tool and resource used in the urban reconversion processes, reducing conflicts and disputes. Although patrimonial is symbolically linked to urban identity, we maintain that different actors rise matrices of different transversal meanings, shared and even contradictory, forming complex patrimonial imaginaries. This work aims to investigate the patrimonial imaginary in the urban spaces under requalification process, as the case of Puerto Norte in the Refinería neighborhood of Rosario. Thus, we address discourses and representations produced by different actors - local government, real estate entrepreneurs and neighborhood associations - and analyze differences, agreements and tensions between different meanings in circulation, based on a theoretical methodological matrix focused on urban imaginaries.