This article analyses the transformations of the public space in the contemporary urban experience, presenting as an empirical reference the old Bairro do Recife (Recife Quarter), in Pernambuco, Brazil. The hypothesis of this work is concerned with everyday and public uses of these heritage spaces that could contribute to the qualification of certain urban spaces as public spaces. Therefore, the central argument of the article is that the uses and counter-uses of gentrification spaces can constitute places, and that these places qualify urban spaces as public ones, insofar as they promote these space centers as practical and symbolic disputes for political acknowledgment and for the public visibility of differences.
Gentrification; Public space; Cultural heritage; Places; Recife quarter
