Understanding studentification dynamics in low-income neighbourhoods: Students as gentrifiers in Concepción (Chile)

The studentification of neighbourhoods in university towns is a topic addressed in several studies, together with its varied effects. However, there are no contributions to this issue from the Latin American sphere, where the increase in the student population in recent decades constitutes one of the main sociodemographic changes of the region. This article analyses and interprets the changes produced in a marginal area, the neighbourhood of Agüita de la Perdiz (Concepción, Chile), as a consequence of the arrival of university students. From the application of a methodology that combines the use of quantitative and qualitative data, results obtained confirm the existence of some transformations similar to other case studies, together with other particular ones, explainable by the socially peripheral character and the informal origin of the neighbourhood analysed. Likewise, the quality of the Chilean university system would suppose segregation between students with more or less resources at the time for looking at lodging, so the profile of the students who stay in the neighbourhood is well defined. The conclusions indicate an emerging type of gentrification whose trigger was the arrival of students; an improving of the image of the neighbourhood is also observed in parallel to a deterioration of neighbourhood links. The study of this case contributes with new elements on the varied and dynamic effects of studentification in ‘peripheral’ urban contexts.