Towards an inductive approach to gentrification from the peripheries: between social housing, urban renewal and extractive enclaves in Ecuador

The commodity boom allowed for unusual revenues for South American states in the 2010s. This process motivated a great capacity of the Ecuadorian state to produce the new peripheries of the city through mega-projects of urban renewal and social housing, promoting the gentrification of central areas. At the same time, the urban peripheries close to the centres of extractive capital accumulation in oil, mining, agro-industrial or tourist cities experienced processes of creative destruction. This article reflects on how to think about the conceptualisation of gentrification from processes differentiated from the new urban peripheries of Ecuador through an inductive comparative exercise, in order to contribute to reflect on how to contribute to this debate from the global peripheries.