urban regeneration and revitalization in the americas - Woodrow ...

Eduardo Kingman Garcés and Ana María Goetschel
struction of theme parks or brand names offered to the global market of
opportunities. Tourism, Debord affirms, is based on visiting something that
has become banal, as part of the society of spectacle (2003). In the case of
heritage, this banalization also takes on the form of high culture. In current
conditions, heritage is measured in terms of profitability (to be managed by
businesses) but, at the same time, in terms of a symbolic economy, as a
resource for humanity, located in limbo, outside of market or the interests
of urban renovation.
The center becomes a historical center that is dehistoricized—a civilized,
ordered, safe, and decent space, with its back to the city and history. Indeed,
the current model of the center is the model of the mall, an aseptic, secured
space where people can freely move about, look, buy, but as part of an order
or micro-policitics. This kind of order is only possible as control and, at the
same time, as the creation of a middle-class culture and consensus.
Unlike the patrimonial actions that occurred during the first modernity,
conceived of as strategies of separation and distinction, the new policies
try to be inclusive. They are devices oriented toward the incorporation
of a disciplinary order although it may be in a more localized and
experimental way. As part of this order, local cultures loose their content:
music, popular religiosity, daily practices. They become stylized and
become part of the spectacle. In a parody of Agamben, it could be said
that in many historic centers, there is a concern for organizing environments
and events, but these are aimed toward “discouraging life”
(Agamben 2000: 67).
The policies of heritage are the best expression of the urban utopia and,
at the same time, a demonstration of its failure. Investments are made to fix
up the historic centers while the cities get uglier and deteriorate and the
quality of life for the city’s residents worsen. The city cannot be administered,
but authorities practice administering through the organization of
experimental spaces. One of the most relevant cases where this has taken
place is that of the Malecón 2000 in Guayaquil, which is conceived of as a
guarded space with restricted access but also a civilized and civilizing space.
In this respect, there is a difference between Quito—where actions with
respect to the population or the ties between heritage and urban renovation
are not completely defined (there is talk of planning and negotiation,
although in everyday practice there is not always negotiation)—and the blatant,
cold, and frankly biased use of patrimony in Guayaquil.
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