For whom do we Preserve? Contradictions on the Preservation of Urban-industrial Heritage in Campinas (SP)

Approached under the sign of degradation, the city’s historical areas have undergone numerous urban interventions that aim to preserve their memory and their cultural heritage. In Campinas, the relative success of interventions on the municipal market and on buildings of the old local aristocracy substantiate the benefits associated with the preservation of attractive cultural heritage sites and buildings; in addition, the incorporation of the so-called urban-industrial heritage—the old railway and industrial facilities, the workers’ villages, etc.—has demonstrated the difficulties in achieving preservationist goals, as well as contradictions on such practices. Simultaneously, the exaggerated fear of losing identity references, which has been boosted and widespread by the media, the dynamic actions of heritage managers, and the attention of real-estate and cultural entrepreneurs seem to overlap the diversity of social demands, or at least give a fragmented view of the socio-spatial processes, facilitating the reproduction of dominant ideologies.