On The Potential of Local Political Projects: A Response To Lake,Martin, and Wilson

Gentrification in the form of "neighborhood revitalization" is increasingly touted as one way of decreasing the social exclusion of residents of poor inner-city neighborhoods and of increasing levels of social mix and social interaction between different classes and ethnic groups. Yet the gentrification literature also suggests that the process may lead to increased social conflict, displacement of poorer residents to lower quality housing elsewhere, and, ultimately, social polarization. Much of this hinges on whether gentrifying neighborhoods can remain socially mixed, and whether neighborhood compositional changes result in more or less of a polarized class and ethnic structure. However, the impact of revitalization and gentrification on levels of social mix, income polarization, or ethnic diversity within neighborhoods remains unclear and under-explored. This study addresses this gap by examining the relationship between the timing of gentrification, changes in the income structure, and shifts in immigrant concentration and ethnic diversity, using census tract data for each decade from 1971 to 2001 in Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver. This research demonstrates that gentrification is followed by declining, rather than improving, levels of social mix, ethnic diversity, and immigrant concentration within affected neighborhoods. At the same time, gentrification is implicated in the growth of neighborhood income polarization and inequality.     

The Final Frontier: Charter Schools as New Community Institutions of Gentrification

Recent scholarship on gentrification suggests the need to pay attention the role of the state in fostering new geographies of gentrification. This paper highlights the different agents and enablers of gentrification and the increasing importance of place-based community activism in inner city neighborhoods that is a response to a retrenching state. These agents include new types of gentrifiers: family-oriented, middle-class groups who have different interests and motivations from "traditional" (childless) gentrifiers. The neoliberalization of social service provision has enabled private groups, such as middle-class gentrifiers, to transform critical social institutions in gentrifying neighborhoods. One such institution is a charter school, which enables private management of public dollars to provide public education. Through interviews and archival analysis, these new dynamics in the gentrification process are explored by examining the importance of place-based community that is produced and consumed by gentrifiers in an intown neighborhood in Atlanta, Georgia.     

Global retail capital and the city: towards an intensification of gentrification

The emerging literature on retail gentrification has not paid much attention to the link between recent reconfigurations of retail capital (concentration, internationalization, and financialization) and the contemporary wave of “generalized gentrification”. In this paper, I argue that analyzing the strategies of stakeholders involved in sectors other than housing (in this case, the retail sector) should allow us to identify different forms of gentrification intensification. I investigate the case of the Marais – that is, one of the first Parisian neighborhoods having undergone gentrification – by mapping the frontier of retail gentrification over the long term (1965–2011) and at the scale of an entire neighborhood (more than 130 ha comprising over 2,000 commercial units). The key drivers of the process (commercial real estate, new brand development strategies, changing commercial environment, the role of public policies) and its social stakes (displacement/replacement of former stores) are then discussed.     

GENDER-RELATED DIFFERENCES IN TRAVEL MODE PSYCHOPHYSICS

This paper introduces a new way of thinking about gentrification, by showing how two discourses of gentrification, the "revanchist city" (an American construct) and the "emancipatory city" (a Canadian construct) are produced and articulated in their national contexts. I demonstrate that such an approach allows to us to rethink the critique of "continentalism" vis-à-vis the "North American City" first posited by Goldberg and Mercer (1986). Following an explanation of why a consideration of discursive formations is important for the construction of a "geography of gentrification," the paper discusses the debate over continentalism before analysing the two gentrification discourses to illustrate the poetics and politics of representation which underpin them. The central argument is that our understandings of both gentrification and continentalism could be furthered by a new direction for gentrification research which is sensitive to context and takes onboard these academic discourses, examines the interplay which exists between them, and finds evidence to accept or reject the discourses in gentrifying neighborhoods throughout Canada and America.     

Legal Geographies—The Right to Spaces for Social Dancing in New York City: A Question of Urban Rights

As municipalities have enforced laws meant to enhance "quality of life" in gentrifying neighborhoods, controversies have erupted over the legitimacy of such laws. This study investigates one such controversy in New York City. It focuses on how the denial by the courts of social dancing as constitutionally protected mode of expression has led to the judicial endorsement of the municipality's cabaret law regulating the spaces for social dancing, despite the questionable legitimacy of this regulation. The study also draws out two implications for urban activism associated with movements making claims for "the right to the city": first, that we should take seriously activities such as social dancing and the spaces that enable them, which are invaluable to urban life but are not constitutionally protected; and second, that we may use the notion of "urban rights" as a principle to protect these activities and spaces from gentrification and questionable governmental regulations.     

NEIGHBORHOOD GENTRIFICATION: A DISCRIMINANT ANALYSIS OF A HISTORIC DISTRICT IN CLEVELAND,OHIO

This study examines one gentrifying neighborhood, Ohio City, in Cleveland, Ohio. It utilizes block group-level data and discriminant analysis to identify key variables associated with the gentrification process. Two discriminant functions resulted from the analysis. One function is highly associated with the percentage of college-educated residents and the other associated with a high proportion of white population, aged 25 to 40, with high median incomes. The discriminant power accounted for by the two discriminant functions is 89%. The results of this study argue for increased use of block group data to examine gentrification, since these data allow more accurate analysis of gentrification borders, neighborhood change, and gentrification modeling.     

Representing “Neighborhood”: Growth Coalitions,Newspaper Reporting,and Gentrification in St. Louis

Newspaper reporters are important actors in promoting gentrification. This study of St. Louis examines their use of a prominent representation of neighborhood in this process: dying neighborhoods in need of middle‐class technical salvationists. We examine its use to help drive two processes to promoting gentrification: legitimating restructuring at actual or anticipated sites and isolating “revitalization‐contaminating” communities. We discover this neighborhood representation is applied primarily to legitimate restructuring at specific sites. Revitalization‐threatening neighborhoods, represented differently, indicates this representation is task specific in this city's “gentrification project.”     

GENTRIFICATION IN KNOXVILLE,TENNESSEE: A STUDY OF THE FOURTH AND GILL NEIGHBORHOOD

The gentrification process is the movement of middle- and upper-class people into central-city working-class residential neighborhoods. Two important questions about the gentrification process are the origin of the new residents and their reasons for moving into these central-city neighborhoods. The study traces residents through two previous moves. It was found that the last move was generally intracity, but the preceding move was intercity. The cost of housing played a major role in the decision to move to the central city.     

THE POOR IN THE INNER CITY: STABILITY AND CHANGE IN TWO PARISIAN NEIGHBORHOODS

Gentrification causes area upgrading and population displacement, but also has wider effects. This article examines processes of planning blight and the labeling processes which create and maintain images of certain areas as being "unimprovable" by capital. A typology of poor neighborhoods in gentrifying cities is proposed with the suggestion that each type will contain populations with different and contrasted characteristics. These ideas are tested through a comparison of two neighborhoods in inner Paris. An understanding of the changing status of such districts can only be gained through a recognition of the importance of images and marketing and of the interests of capital.     

Post-Soviet urban renewal and its discontents: gentrification by demolition in Baku

ABSTRACT

Gentrification is being increasingly discussed as a driver of urban change globally, including in the former Soviet Union. However, the translation of the gentrification phenomenon into post-Soviet cities like Baku remains poorly understood. This article explores how a particular form of state-led “gentrification by demolition” is unfolding in Baku. We assert the ongoing relevance of using the framework of gentrification to analyze the processes. We go on to use the case of the recently demolished Sovetsky district to carefully expand the geography of the gentrification discourse. We argue that Baku’s own “landscape of gentrification” is shaped by anumber of preconditions. It bears the marks of the legacy of post-socialist cities. However, it more resembles muscular state-led “gentrification by demolition” that is characteristic of Chinese cities. It also echoes Soviet city-building legacies in its use of spectacle and “grand gesture” to legitimize and buy support for gentrification policies.     

快速城市化背景下乡村绅士化的时空演变特征

乡村绅士化是指移民从城市迁入乡村地区, 通过对一定的经济资本的利用, 来达到对乡村的自然环境与独特的生活方式及文化氛围的体验与消费的过程。乡村绅士化过程造成了乡村地区人口结构的重构以及物质景观的变迁。本文选取广州小洲村作为研究案例, 对乡村绅士化的时空特征及其演变过程进行了深入分析。研究发现, 小洲村乡村绅士化过程分为艺术先锋绅士化及学生化两个阶段。由于空间需求、付租能力、群体数量等方面的差异, 两类绅士化过程对当地的物质环境、文化、社会、经济等方面产生了不同的影响。但两者的发展紧密相连, 在时间和空间上经历了延续、重叠、更替等阶段。乡村绅士化的过程, 在一定程度上缓解了乡村社区经济发展的困境, 也没有造成对本地居民的置换。但是随着社区住房成本的上涨, 先期迁入的艺术家群体正在被付租能力更强的学生群体逐渐替换。值得注意的是, 本地村民通过积极的寻租行为成为乡村绅士化的重要推动者, 而非被置换者。研究发现, 乡村绅士化现象的中西方差异主要体现在4 个方面:经济和物质层面的影响、与城市化的关系、人口置换的后果、绅士化的推动者。这些差异主要与乡村绅士化发展的社会经济背景、机制和特殊的土地政策等密切相关。这一研究对于探讨转型期中国乡村绅士化现象的特征与机制以及乡村社区发展的模式具有重要的理论与现实意义。     

Taming a “chaotic concept”: gentrification and segmented consumption in Brooklyn, 2002–2012

Public debate and prior scholarship tend to emphasize the link between gentrification and high-end chain retail, underscoring the importance of taste cultures tied to social class in making sense of gentrification’s impact on neighborhood identity. In this study, we present evidence from 10 years of change in the businesses of Brooklyn, New York City, a period of extensive gentrification across a wide variety of neighborhood and census-tract level contexts. Adopting census tracts clustered in neighborhoods as the units of analysis, we model the effects of institutional and demographic change on two separate outcomes: chain retail density and homogeneity in the types of goods and services available. We argue that changes in consumer culture embedded in broader processes of gentrification are neither “chaotic” nor “unitary” but are “segmented” according to local spatial and demographic context, taking two discrete forms: institutionally facilitated corporatization; lifestyle-driven homogenization.     

The landscape of gentrification: exploring the diversity of “upgrading” processes in Hong Kong, 1986–2006

In the late twentieth century, Hong Kong experienced a transformation from an industrial to a specialized services and high-tech economy. Accompanying this shift, extensive local redevelopment has fundamentally altered the physical and social characteristics of the city. This analysis explores the physical and social transformation of Hong Kong from 1986 to 2006, examining the diversity of gentrification processes. The specific questions focus on: (1) How extensive are gentrification processes operating within Hong Kong? and (2) What is the role of new-builds in facilitating displacement? Principal component analysis and K-means clustering are used to identify areas within Hong Kong that are experiencing physical and social upgrading. From the quantitative analysis, three neighborhoods—Kennedy Town, Tiu Keng Leng, and Yuen Long—are selected for a qualitative study into the complexity and the diversity of capital reinvestment, social conflict, and displacement.     

国外商业绅士化研究进展及其对本土研究的启示

商业是城市中最活跃,并且对城市发展和空间重构产生重要影响的功能之一。近20年来,随着产业转型与城市更新实践,日益突出的商业绅士化现象愈发引起国外学术界关注。同时,多源数据和定量分析方法的利用,促进了商业绅士化专题研究逐渐增多。商业绅士化的发生背景、表现特征、推动主体与形成机制,以及商业绅士化导致阶层置换、加深种族隔离等社会空间效应是主要的研究内容。通过对国外商业绅士化研究文献的梳理,以期展示城市商业高档化重构的机理以及绅士化演进的复杂性。基于当前我国城市转型和消费转型的特征与趋势,尝试提出对商业绅士化本土研究方向和方法的启示。     

The super-gentrification of Park Slope,Brooklyn

Studies of classical gentrification typically focus on the embourgeoisement of neighborhoods and displacement of marginalized people. Recently, a new form of gentrification – super-gentrification – has emerged with the expansion of global finance capital, according to urban geographer Loretta Lees. Super-gentrification entails the further upscaling of already gentrified neighborhoods with the in-migration of upper-income residents and displacement of middle class residents, many of whom were among the initial gentrifiers. Despite the attention policy makers, urban planners, and the media are paying to the “middle class squeeze,” few quantitative studies of super-gentrification exist. Using data from the United States Decennial Census, American Community Survey, public residential sales transaction records, and real estate listings, this article sheds light on the landscape of super-gentrification and how to identify it with a quantitative analysis of changes in income, demographics, and housing affordability in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York since 1970.     

教育绅士化社区：形成机制及其社会空间效应研究

教育绅士化现象已成为深刻影响我国城市居住空间分异的重要因素,以长春市郊区出现的教育绅士化社区为例,对其形成机制及社会空间效应进行深入研究。结果表明：① 在优质教育资源空间分布不均及教育体制改革背景下,私立学校与房地产开发活动在郊区的结合催生出一种新的教育绅士化现象,其实质是由教育资源引发的绅士化现象。② 教育绅士化社区采用“房地产+名校”的模式进行开发,涉及地方政府、房地产开发商、学校以及绅士阶层四大主体。教育绅士化缘于地方政府的征地行为,开发商是物质景观改造的主体,学校则是吸引绅士阶层集聚的关键。③ 教育绅士化社区一方面引导了资本、中产阶层和优质教育资源向郊区的迁移,促进了郊区物质景观及人口、社会经济的升级,并在一定程度上有利于教育公平。另一方面又不可避免地引起了城市人口、社会经济空间的分层和极化。本研究在一定程度上丰富了教育绅士化的研究内容和研究视野,同时对教育、住房以及城市发展政策的制定具有一定启示。     

“学生化”的城中村社区——基于广州下渡村的实证分析

学生化作为绅士化现象的一种类型,是高等教育规模扩张背景下学生群体对于城市空间进行重构的现象。起因于学生群体的居住偏好,以及投资者与房屋所有者的寻租行为,面向学生群体的居住空间开始产生并聚集,形成独特的学生化社区,并由此产生一系列的社会,经济与文化影响。基于对学生化现象相关研究的综述,本文对于广州市中山大学邻近的下渡村学...     

Professionalization and displacement in Greater London

Summary This article presents results from research that has looked at the process of displacement induced by gentrification. The approach uses census data to measure social change to examine the interaction between proxy indicators of gentrification and displacement. Data is presented indicating that links exist between these processes. The paper concludes that while these links do not conclusively demonstrate the existence of displacement it is unlikely that such a strongly observed effect is unrelated to processes of professionalization and that other approaches to the study of displacement are also needed to achieve a more rounded view of the process.     

Assessing green gentrification in historically disenfranchised neighborhoods: a longitudinal and spatial analysis of Barcelona

To date, little is known about the extent to which the creation of municipal green spaces over an entire city addresses social or racial inequalities in the distribution of environmental amenities – or whether such an agenda creates contributes to green gentrification. In this study, we evaluate the effects of creating 18 green spaces in socially vulnerable neighborhoods of Barcelona during the 1990s and early 2000s. We examined the evolution over time of six socio-demographic gentrification indicators in the areas close to green spaces in comparison with the entire districts. Our results indicate that new parks in the old town and formerly industrialized neighborhoods seem to have experienced green gentrification. In contrast, most economically depressed areas and working-class neighborhoods with less desirable housing stock and more isolated from the city center gained vulnerable residents as they became greener, indicating a possible redistribution and greater concentration of vulnerable residents through the city.     

Data,dispossession, and Facebook: techno-imperialism and toponymy in gentrifying San Francisco

ABSTRACT

This article situates the 2015 rebranding of Zuckerberg San Francisco General within San Francisco’s technopolitical landscape. After Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg donated to the hospital, thereby acquiring naming rights, local toponymical tension percolated. This was in part due to Facebook’s gentrifying role in the city and the racial violence such processes constitute, as well as ongoing practices data colonialism. The latter includes Facebook’s attempt at pairing hospital data with user data in order to augment its scope into intimate and bodily geographies. In exploring the intertwining of gentrification and data colonialism, here I forge the concept of techno-imperialism as an analytic and as a point of departure in understanding Facebook’s multi-scalar impacts. As I suggest, the transformation of “The General” to “The Zuckerberg” indexes the company's techno-imperiality, as well as its efforts to mask its dispossessive impacts.