Abstract
Displacement has become one of the most prominent themes in contemporary geographical debates, used to describe processes of dispossession and forced eviction at a diverse range of scales. Given its frequent deployment in studies describing the consequences of gentrification, this paper seeks to better define and conceptualise displacement as a process of un-homing, noting that while gentrification can prompt processes of eviction, expulsion and exclusion operating at different scales and speeds, it always ruptures the connection between people and place. On this basis – and recognising displacement as a form of violence – this paper concludes that the diverse scales and temporalities of displacement need to be better elucidated so that their negative emotional, psychosocial and material impacts can be more fully documented, and resisted.
Highlights
Displacement is one of the most frequently-invoked concepts in human geography, used to describe forms of enforced mobility in a variety of contexts and at different spatial scales (Brickell et al, 2017)
Displacement under racialised capitalism and the seizure of land by settlers who ‘seek to replace an entire system of ownership with another’ (Wolfe, 2016: 34; see Smith, 2002; Fullilove, 2004; Jackson, 2017). Such possible connections are deeplysuggestive of the value of displacement as a motif in contemporary urban geography, one that links to important notions of social and spatial justice
In this paper we argue that we need to work with a more rigorous conceptualisation of displacement that is, at the same time, inclusive enough to consider the variety of forms it takes in the context of contemporary urban gentrifications
Summary
Displacement is one of the most frequently-invoked concepts in human geography, used to describe forms of enforced mobility in a variety of contexts and at different spatial scales (Brickell et al, 2017). ‘Root-shock’ (Fullilove, 2004) likewise refers to the destruction of a neighbourhood (by urban renewal) and the traumatic stress reaction experienced by those affected – something akin to the ‘slow violence’ of housing dispossession described by Pain (2019) when detailing the urban trauma that can become ‘hard-wired’ in place While all these terms connote forms of dispossession and carry with them significantly negative overtones, in this paper we suggest that they are neither precise enough, not sufficiently encompassing, to capture the range of displacements that occur in the context of urban gentrification. In this paper we argue that we need to work with a more rigorous conceptualisation of displacement that is, at the same time, inclusive enough to consider the variety of forms it takes in the context of contemporary urban gentrifications. We move to consider how such questions intersect with questions of speed and slowness, noting that measuring displacement – and diagnosing its impacts – can differ depending on the temporal as well as spatial horizons invoked
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