Rural gentrification, touristification, and displacement: Analysing evidence from Mexico

Abstract

The phenomenon of displacement has been at the centre of fierce debates in the literature on urban gentrification. On one side, a group of authors has argued that residential displacement is not always a key component of gentrification. On the other side, another group of researchers has defended the centrality of gentrification-induced displacement by explaining that it is embodied in different forms, including direct residential displacement, displacement pressures, exclusionary displacement, socio-cultural displacement, and commercial displacement. This paper builds on those debates in the urban gentrification literature by incorporating evidence from studies on rural gentrification. I summarize various case studies from the United Kingdom, North America, and Latin America, before turning to my own work on rural gentrification and touristification in the Mexican state of Morelos. A central argument is that direct residential displacement is not a predominant impact of rural gentrification, although it is closely connected to other forms of displacement, including exclusionary displacement, socio-cultural displacement, commercial displacement, and the displacement of other animal and plant species. The article concludes with a reflection on how research on rural gentrification contributes to the wider literature and discussion on gentrification and displacement by offering a more nuanced and complex vision of the link between these phenomena, which is important for the very definition of gentrification.