Gentrification-induced displacement made visible: shop displacement and tourism gentrification in Reykjavík

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper investigates commercial displacement in the context of tourism gentrification. Tourism gentrification refers to the process by which tourism-related activities result in the displacement of long-term residents in favour of capital investment focused on tourism. While research on displacement induced by tourism gentrification has mainly focused on the residential displacement of long-term inhabitants, its impacts on local shops are poorly understood. Yet, commercial displacement is key to tourism gentrification as it involves the displacement of local shop owners and acts as a pressure of displacement on residents. This paper aims to measure the extent of shop displacement and to explore its causes and effects on shop owners by examining the experiences of shop owners as a category of those displaced, using Marcuse’s theoretical framework on displacement and the city centre of Reykjavík (Iceland) as a case study. It combines the quantitative measurement of commercial displacement with interviews with displaced shop owners. It argues that understanding commercial displacement, which is inherently much more visible than residential displacement, can provide urban geographers with valuable insights into understanding broader processes of gentrification-induced displacement.