Urban Frontiers in the Fracturing City: Heritage, Tourism and Immigration

Abstract

Two of the main problems of the current urbanization process are job insecurity and the increase in social inequalities in the city, which, among other factors, are linked to impoverishment and greater vulnerability, segregation and social polarization. Ultimately, these factors are mainly responsible for the configuration of a new spatial order, in which urban boundaries are consolidated. These are of various kinds and are recognizable throughout the history of the city, but those of an intra-urban nature stand out, which, in almost all cases, are delimited on the basis of the concept of social class. In this chapter, we seek to contribute new reflections on the construction of urban borders in the dual city, from three clearly interrelated perspectives: the territorial (heritage as a gentrifying agent), the sectoral (tourism and urban inequality) and the social (migrants and segregation). We conclude by highlighting the transversal role that tourism plays in the drawing of urban boundaries and its capacity to generate processes of inequality. Thus, the city is torn between the intensity of the expansion of two urban blocs, that of gentrification and that of impoverishment, and these two forces are delimited by insurmountable barriers.