Patchwork gentrification Fragmented urban governance, residents' experiences and resistance in Lima

This dissertation examines the trajectories of gentrification in Lima through the lens of urban fragmentation and neoliberal urban governance. Focusing on the central districts of Barranco and Lince, it investigates four key dimensions characteristic of gentrification processes after the neoliberal turn: new-build gentrification, touristification, privatisation of public spaces, and resistance of local residents. Drawing on qualitative methods, including ethnographic observations, interviews, and document analysis, the research traces how state-led and private sector interventions converge with local practices to produce uneven patterns of urban transformation. Building on existing gentrification debates, the dissertation introduces the concept of patchwork gentrification to account for the fragmented, locally variegated, and often non-linear trajectories observed in Lima. This framework is operationalised through three analytical layers: metrics, interpretations, and practices. It allows for a nuanced understanding of how real estate speculation, symbolic displacement, and selective investment reinforce existing inequalities without necessarily producing mass physical displacement. By bridging theoretical discussions on neoliberal urbanism with an in-depth empirical study of Lima, the dissertation contributes to debates on urban fragmentation and the differentiated impacts of gentrification in Latin America. It highlights how governance logics, market dynamics, and resident strategies interact to reshape urban space in ways that are both contested and contingent. In doing so, it advances knowledge on the assemblage of actors, forces and practices that drive urban change and offers a framework for analysing gentrification processes in cities characterised by entrenched socio-spatial inequalities.