The green gentrification cycle

Abstract

Significant research has shown that gentrification often follows the implementation of greening initiatives (e.g. new parks) in cities worldwide, in what scholars have called ‘green gentrification’. A few other studies in the Global North suggest that greening initiatives might be disproportionately located in disadvantaged neighbourhoods that are gentrifying as opposed to disadvantaged areas experiencing continuous disinvestment. Building on these findings, in this critical commentary we present the green gentrification cycle, which sheds light on the complex spatiotemporal relationships between greening and gentrification. The cycle posits that gentrification can precede greening, gentrification can follow greening and, in some cases, gentrification can both precede and then follow greening. We present the actors and processes involved in intentionally steering greening to already gentrifying communities and discuss them through an environmental justice lens. Specifically, we propose three complementary explanations for why gentrification precedes greening, including demand from gentrifiers, push from the green growth machine and increased resource availability in gentrifying communities. We then present a research agenda on the green gentrification cycle, including the need for a better understanding of how the cycle might materialise in places with varying political economies, such as the Global South.