Gentrification Process Research Articles

Churches and Urban Regeneration in Postindustrial Amsterdam

The central focus of this article is the interaction between religious actors and urban regeneration in the former industrial area of Amsterdam North. While there is extensive literature on the structural, sociocultural, and economic impact of urban regeneration and related processes of gentrification, the role of religious groups in these processes of neighborhood change has largely been ignored. Based on ethnographic research, I examine how different Christian movements interact with their changing neighborhood in varied forms. The redevelopment of industrial buildings and the gentrification of working-class neighborhoods in Amsterdam North enable different but particular forms of Christian place-making. I focus on two forms of engagement with urban spaces: (a) the reuse of industrial buildings by Pentecostal movements and (b) the transformation of traditional Protestant church buildings into socially mixed neighborhood centers. These two different forms of urban place-making highlight how Christian organizations bring the active agency to urban regeneration and cocreate urban neighborhoods materially and socially.

Identifying Green Gentrification in Chongqing Central Park Based on Price Feature Model

As part of urban planning, urban greening plays a significant role in mediating urban development and improving quality of life for residents. However, studies have indicated that urban greening efforts may result in green gentrification, in which the creation of urban green spaces improve the quality of life of residents on the one hand, and increases the house prices in the surrounding area, thereby preventing low-income residents enjoying the ecological environment benefits. Even though, there are only a few studies that examine the connection between green gentrification and urban greenery in China. Moreover, there is a need for further investigation into the manifestations and characteristics of green gentrification and whether it always results in displacement. Therefore, we chose Chongqing Central Park as the study area. The results demonstrated that the house prices have increased exponentially over the past ten years in this area, the neighborhood is largely populated by middle- and high-income individuals, and residents who were more than 30 minutes away from the park no longer enjoyed it as often. By using a price feature model, ecological, architectural, and neighborhood features were correlated with house prices, and it was found that the distance to the park correlated more significantly with house prices. As a result, Chongqing Central Park area has witnessed a green gentrification process in the last decade, which reflects the green paradox to some extent, that is, urban greening brings high quality ecological environment but also reduce the equity of human living conditions. Therefore, we suggest taking social impacts of ecological construction into account while ensuring sustainable urban development in urban greening efforts.

Subverting the “migrant division of labor” through the traditional retail market: the London Latin Village’s struggle against gentrification

ABSTRACT Retail gentrification describes the process by which the retail offer of a neighborhood is reconfigured to cater to a wealthier clientele than previously. This not only affects the ability of poorer urban residents to access essential goods and services but also has disruptive effects on existing communities. In this paper, we analyze the threat of gentrification and its impact on the experiences of migrant workers at the Latin Village, a Traditional Retail Market (TRM) in North London. We make two arguments based on a combination of qualitative research methods (interviews, participant observation, survey and document analysis). First, we find that the market offers a sense of belonging as well as economic opportunities to migrants, predominantly from Latin America, who face discrimination in many other parts of London’s stratified labor market. Second, we argue that regeneration of the Latin Village as originally envisaged would disproportionately affect this migrant community by threatening an important space of social and economic inclusion. The paper concludes by highlighting the importance of the workplace as a mediator of migrants’ experiences of the city, which calls for further attention to instances of workspace displacement engendered by processes of retail gentrification and their consequences for marginalized communities.

Holistic gentrification and the recreation of rurality: The new wave of rural gentrification in chengdu, China

The paper contributes to the literature on rural gentrification by incorporating empirical evidence from amenity-poor rural areas in the developing world. While current literature on rural gentrification has largely focused on the gentrification process in amenity-rich rural areas, the present study examines rural gentrification process in a historically polluted county in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China. The gentrification process features a holistic transformation of farmland into an artificial landscape, thereby segregating gentrifiers from both polluted rural space and unwelcoming urban space. The paper attributes the rise of holistic gentrification to state-initiated farmland concentration, and to the gentrifier developers’ practices of redefining rurality as immersive resort experiences. The paper concludes that the holistic gentrification was conducive to job losses in both the recreation and agricultural sectors, consequently reducing peasant households to a state of passivity and dependency, while collective actions against gentrifier developers were ineffective owing to highly skewed power dynamics.

Heimat Wilhelmsburg: Belonging and resistance in a racialized neighborhood

ABSTRACT Considering how Hamburg-Wilhelmsburg has been stigmatized for decades, and recently targeted for redevelopment, you would hardly guess from the outside that the neighborhood is beloved by racialized long-time residents, and considered to be a warm, welcoming Heimat: a space of belonging, where you do not have to justify your presence. This identification is tied to the neighborhood’s racialization; the qualities that have been labeled as problems to be transformed through social mix make it a space of relative safety and security, in a context in which many residents experience attempted exclusions from German identity. Based on interviews with racialized long-time residents, contextualized within racialization in Germany, the racialized displaceability embedded in social mix policy, the contested meaning of Heimat, and the experiences of Wilhelmsburg residents with migrantization, I argue that this emphatic claim is a strength that is threatened by the current process of social mix gentrification.

MISSING OLDER ADULTS IN A GENTRIFYING DOWNTOWN: Detroit's Rebrand for a Young and Talented Pool of Residents

Very little research has focused on how age factors into gentrification processes and how place branding helps drive gentrification. Scholarship on gentrification has engaged with the ways that race and class intersect to marginalize long-time residents politically and economically in the context of gentrification, but rarely analyzes the important role that age plays in exclusion, or how it is represented materially in the branding of changing neighborhoods. To address this gap, this article aims to present a better understanding of how age plays into representation in new developments through the branding of downtown Detroit as a young, hip place to live, work and play. The article outlines how older adults are excluded from the reimagining of the ‘new Detroit’ using a content analysis of media articles, social media, promotional materials and downtown redevelopment strategies. This analysis showed limited representation of older adults in new developments, activities and public spaces downtown. Instead, images focused on younger people, young families and young professionals enjoying downtown amenities, often highlighting their perceived economic contributions. Biased representations of changing neighborhoods create barriers to developing an age-friendly city. These findings inform the article's recommendations directed at planners and developers on how older adults can be better accommodated and included in the development boom of downtown Detroit.

Producing an ideal village: Imagined rurality, tourism and rural gentrification in China

As with its urban counterpart, rural gentrification has been identified in different countries and is argued to have gone global. This study focuses on rural gentrification in China and proposes a more comprehensive and context-specific “imagined rurality” to explain the motivation of gentrifiers and the government's involvement in the processes of rural gentrification. The imagined rurality is shaped by the popular discourse and the governments' vision of the rural and may be different in different contexts. Through scrutinizing the process of rural gentrification in Mingyue Village, China, this research finds that gentrifiers' relocation and investments to materialize and commodify their imagined rurality have triggered the development of tourism and rural gentrification. Besides the often-underscored land ownership, local governments have also played a key role as a gentrifying agent in advancing rural gentrification and rural tourism under the background of rural revitalization. It also reveals that the process of rural gentrification is not just influenced by urbanites' imagined rurality but also conditioned by the intertwined process of tourism development. This research contributes to both the rural gentrification literature and to the literature on rural restructuring and the notions of rurality in contemporary China.

Exploring green gentrification in 28 global North cities: the role of urban parks and other types of greenspaces

Although cities globally are increasingly mobilizing re-naturing projects to address diverse urban socio-environmental and health challenges, there is mounting evidence that these interventions may also be linked to the phenomenon known as green gentrification. However, to date the empirical evidence on the relationship between greenspaces and gentrification regarding associations with different greenspace types remains scarce. This study focused on 28 mid-sized cities in North America and Western Europe. We assessed improved access to different types of greenspace (i.e. total area of parks, gardens, nature preserves, recreational areas or greenways [i] added before the 2000s or [ii] added before the 2010s) and gentrification processes (including [i] gentrification for the 2000s; [ii] gentrification for the 2010s; [iii] gentrification throughout the decades of the 2000s and 2010s) in each small geographical unit of each city. To estimate the associations, we developed a Bayesian hierarchical spatial model for each city and gentrification time period (i.e. a maximum of three models per city). More than half of our models showed that parks—together with other factors such as proximity to the city center—are positively associated with gentrification processes, particularly in the US context, except in historically Black disinvested postindustrial cities with lots of vacant land. We also find than in half of our models newly designated nature preserves are negatively associated with gentrification processes, particularly when considering gentrification throughout the 2000s and the 2010s and in the US. Meanwhile, for new gardens, recreational spaces and greenways, our research shows mixed results (some positive, some negative and some no effect associations). Considering the environmental and health benefits of urban re-naturing projects, cities should keep investing in improving park access while simultaneously implementing anti-displacement and inclusive green policies.

Measuring, mapping, and anticipating climate gentrification in Florida: Miami and Tampa case studies

This article introduces an experimental methodology to identify proxy indicators that are conceptually consistent with the processes of Climate Gentrification (“CG”), in which a change in demand preferences among consumers and investors drives the increased consumption for real estate, in part, on lower measures of physical risk from climate change. Evaluated through case studies in the state of Florida, this article builds on the integration of multiple datasets concerning rental properties, evictions, and socioeconomic data, as well as environmental risk indices to build a Climate Gentrification Risk Index (CGRI). In the Miami case study, we find that the CGRI identifies a hotly contested neighborhood that is already known to be in a state of transition consistent with the processes of CG. In the Tampa case, the index highlights a district that exhibits strong metrics for the future accelerated occurrence of CG. Our findings suggest that transitional land uses and flexible zoning in low-exposure areas are key elements for attracting new development consistent with CG and offer insight into the challenges that local governments face understanding the types and rates of change that may be catalyzed in the broader urban processes of public and private sector climate adaptation in the built environment.

Expelled from the garden? Understanding the dynamics of green gentrification in Vancouver, British Columbia

There is substantial evidence detailing the ecological and social benefits provided through urban greening. However, research in the field of urban green equity has revealed that these benefits are not enjoyed equitably by all residents; existing disparities in the distribution, accessibility, and experience of urban greening disproportionately affect historically marginalized communities and residents. Furthermore, green gentrification scholarship has indicated that instances of urban greening intended to rectify inequities, can contribute to or elicit shifts in property values, encouraging speculative commercial and retail investment, disrupting existing socio-spatial relationships, and threatening the housing security of residents. Although there is consensus on this general characterization of green gentrification, many questions remain concerning the relationships between urban residents engaged in small-scale urban greening and the perpetuation of green gentrification outcomes. Contributing to this line of inquiry, we present a case study of an urban farm operating in Vancouver, Canada, facing displacement due to the redevelopment of its current site. Our results from the study illuminate the contradictory position in which urban residents practicing urban greening are sometimes placed—both implicated in and impacted by green gentrification processes. We present a review of our case study to highlight the power dynamics that farm members must navigate in the effort to preserve their access to land and continue their farming practice. Then, we discuss the farm's role as a consultant for the redevelopment process, exploring how its vision, mission, and identity have been co-opted by development agents and used as a branding tool to promote and support the public perception of the redevelopment. Our findings offer insight into novel relationships between urban agriculture, large-scale redevelopment, and green gentrification. What's more, they contribute to existing discourse concerning the limitations of development processes to account for the risks of green gentrification.

Tertiarization Contribution to Cities Dynamics. Study Case: Bab Ezzouar, Algiers

This article presents a study on the tertiarization phenomenon of Algerian cities built after independence, to provide adequate housing and access to better living conditions. To be more effective in our research, we selected as a case study the municipality of Bab Ezzouar. Bab Ezzouar is a city built during the seventies to receive the eastern extension of the capital Algiers through a mass habitat-production project – but had been for long time a dormitory suburb-. Today, with the increase in the supply of services and consequently the population, this municipality hosts the business district of the capital. Its new economic tendences are reflected by the intense development of the number of enterprises located at its level. They rose from 334 in 2000 to 2,631 in 2019, then 2,803 in 2021. In other terms, an estimated growth of 839%. Our main objectives of this research are: a) to measure how tertiarization contributed to create new dynamics in the area with a strong impact on competitivity, attractiveness and quality of living, b) to understand if this requalification of the built environment resulted in other urban phenomenon, such as a gentrification process of the area. To achieve the proposed objectives, we defined a methodology which comprehends: literature review about the main topics, data collection about city different trends and aspects, interviews with municipal decision-makers, population questionnaires; and space syntax, to better understand the development of tertiarization and its impact on the dynamics, gentrification, and growth perspectives of Bab Ezzouar city.
 
 Received: 27 June 2022 / Accepted: 19 August 2022 / Published: 2 September 2022

The socio-spatial effects of Circular Urban Systems

This article shows what kind of urban spaces are produced by circular systems. The focus is on the socio-spatial dimension of closed material loops in two neighbourhoods (e.g., reuse of grey water, recycling of waste, provision of renewable energy). Although the Circular Economy (CE) narrative is increasingly part of urban transformation policies, there are considerable implementation gaps in how regenerative or self-sufficient systems are operationalised in practice. I argue that the application of circularity principles in the urban context requires conceptual clarification to be useful for urban theory and praxis. Therefore, I provide a political ecology perspective of circular urban systems by analysing two cases: Block 6 in Berlin and Schoonschip in Amsterdam. I explain how such systems were established, who benefits from them, and what kind of socio-spatial conditions they produce. Methodologically, I use several qualitative research methods in the framework of a case study analysis. The results show that the incremental and publicly financed low-tech development of circular systems is socially compatible while privately funded high-tech developments result in stronger levels of sustainability but are reserved to a small exclusive group of people and provoke gentrification processes.

Considerations for Children’s Nature Connection and Park Environmental Justice in Western Societies

Nature provides multiple physical, mental, and social health benefits to children. Although green spaces in cities can provide these health benefits, in many Western societies, children are spending less time outdoors and access to green spaces and related factors are not evenly distributed spatially and demographically. In addition, recent literature points to new greening projects furthering inequities due to processes of green gentrification. Several studies have provided insight into distributional, interactional, and procedural environmental justice issues related to green spaces. Through a narrative review of the literature, this paper explores these components of environmental justice as they relate to children’s nature connection and play in local city parks. When planning for local parks, historical and context-specific social and environmental factors that influence caretaker and children’s ability to access green spaces that promote nature connection should be considered.

Allure in the uninhabitable: on affect, space, and Blackness in gentrifying Philadelphia

This article engages with affect theory and Black feminist interrogations of the human to examine the conflicting feelings evoked by the gentrification process. Black feminist theorists have long demonstrated how histories linger, shape, and make meaning in the present. Affect theory offers further insight into this process by illustrating how we imbue people, places, and things with meaning. This article links these perspectives to address how associations such as economic development/life, Blackness/death, and the uninhabitable/nonhuman shape public sentiments on gentrification and space more broadly. This discussion centers on two urban development projects in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a city that is, like many American cities, racially segregated. This analysis attends to how antiblackness circulates to imbue space and bodies with racialized meaning and resonance. I advance that while this circulation of affects is devastatingly powerful, antiblackness does not circulate uncontested or capture all elements of Black life and Black place-making.

Commercial gentrification in China and its distribution, development, and correlates: The case of Chengdu

Within the Anglo-American literature, commercial, along with residential, gentrification has often been treated as an attendant neighborhood phenomenon. This study aims to uncover the distribution of areas for emerging consumption that indicate the occurrence of commercial gentrification, as well as to explain the development process and spatial correlations of commercial gentrification in Chengdu, a large Chinese city. With the data of points of interest (POIs), the study categorizes new retail places for commercial gentrification and conducts spatial and statistical analyses. The following findings are revealed: First, the distribution of new retail places changed from a monocentric to a polycentric structure in the main urban areas of Chengdu from 2010 to 2020, wherein high-density areas were partially overlapped with traditional commercial centers. Second, commercial gentrification in Chengdu was presented by the fastest growth of the entertainment services in the 2010s. Third, commercial gentrification in Chengdu shifted from a centripetal to a centrifugal development pattern from 2010 to 2020. The geographies of development were variegated, connected with multiple location attributes and impacted by local governments’ urban development strategies. Fourth, commercial gentrification was positively correlated with the growth of knowledge-intensive industries but negatively related to the change in both traditionally secondary and tertiary sectors in the past decade. Finally, changes in housing prices showed no connection with commercial gentrification during the studied period. The study suggests that commercial gentrification should be treated as a phenomenon of industrial gentrification, independent of residential gentrification. The commercial spatial planning in the city should play close attention to the synergic and exclusive relations between new retail industries and the evolution of industrial spaces in the emerging post-industrial city economy.

State-embedded gentrification in China

Based on a socio-spatial analysis of the restructuring of Guangzhou, China, from 2000 to 2010, this study explores the spatiality of gentrification. We argue that gentrification processes in Guangzhou are best characterized as state-embedded gentrification wherein the spatiality of gentrification manifests the spatial selectivity of the hegemonic state. Specifically, Guangzhou's restructuring presents a pattern of suburban gentrification, coupled with sporadic inner-city gentrification. The city's spatial pattern of gentrification was shaped by the local state's spatial selectivity through land-driven development policies, such as administrative annexation, new-zone development, and urban renewal, which were intended to promote industrial upgrading and economic growth. While new-build gentrification was a key form of gentrification, the demographic changes in gentrified neighborhoods in Guangzhou were primarily attributed to the inflows of gentrifiers (especially those in knowledge-oriented or state sectors) instead of the physical displacement of disadvantaged groups. After critically interrogating the applicability and relevance of existing gentrification concepts to Chinese cities, we argue that the concept of state-embedded gentrification helps to articulate the nuanced exercise of state hegemony in gentrification.

Designing an equitable city: confronting gentrification in studio pedagogy

ABSTRACT The article offers a methodological contribution to the pedagogies of urbanism by examining how design can address the urgent issue of urban inequality from an in-depth, long-term, and ultimately, transformational, perspective. We conducted a 3-year experiment in studio pedagogy at Cardiff University to address this question by confronting one of the most prominent spatial expressions of urban inequality, i.e. gentrification. The site of the studio was the Grangetown area in the city of Cardiff, which is the capital of Wales in the United Kingdom. Grangetown contains concentrations of low- to moderate-income groups that are threatened with large-scale involuntary displacement due to incipient gentrification. The goal of this experiment in design pedagogy was to gain an in-depth understanding of processes of gentrification while simultaneously developing design strategies that not only address gentrification’s root causes but also propose equitable alternatives to the future of the city. The studio was guided by an overall framework–based on extensive research on gentrification–consisted of its most critical aspects (e.g. patterns of land ownership and uses, housing finance and commodification, public policies and regulations). The article describes this design studio process, its multiple innovations and different outcomes, and then critically reflects on its implications for studio pedagogy as well as for design practice. The goal of confronting gentrification in this experiment was to help graduate students--and future practitioners--design a far more equitable city by combining theoretical knowledge and scholarly research with critical thinking and design skills, and by engaging with values that are closer to social justice than what market-oriented thinking and mainstream practices currently allow.

‘It is natural’: sustained place attachment of long-term residents in a gentrifying Prague neighbourhood

ABSTRACT Recently, post-socialist inner cities have been transforming through various processes of revitalisation and gentrification. The resulting physical and social contrasts of neighbouring localities lead to the spatial fragmentation of inner-city areas that may produce variegated effects on the everyday life of local residents. This paper examines how long-term residents of an inner-city neighbourhood in Prague undergoing residential and commercial gentrification have perceived and lived through its change. Specifically, it reveals how the ongoing changes influence residents’ place attachment. The paper relies upon qualitative methodology using semi-structured in-depth interviews with long-term inhabitants (>20 years). Empirical findings point to a strong and stable place attachment, despite ambivalent attitudes towards recent changes related to gentrification. The effect of gentrification on place attachment appears to be relatively limited. Many residents acknowledge that gentrification has reversed the deterioration that characterised the neighbourhood in the past. Moreover, negatively perceived changes to the neighbourhood are often not attributed primarily to the gentrification process but understood as a natural part of residents’ own ageing, wider societal changes, and historical development of the neighbourhood. The article highlights the need to investigate the personal, spatial and temporal contexts to comprehend the complex effects of gentrification on long-term residents.

Beyond displacement: the co-existence of newcomers and local residents in the process of rural tourism gentrification in China

The arrival of an increasing number of newcomers to rural areas has contributed to rural tourism gentrification, the sustainable development of which requires the co-existence of gentrifiers and local residents. While current research in gentrification and tourism studies highlights one-way power relations – highlighting the privileged position of either newcomers or local residents, few scholars have explored the more complex power relations between them. To address that gap, this study explores how Rural Tourism Makers (RTMs), a group of middle-class urbanites who lead the process of rural tourism gentrification in China, negotiate to co-exist with local residents. Through participant observation and in-depth interviews, the study captures a holistic picture of the relationships between RTMs and local residents in the Chinese context, which goes beyond direct displacement. Although RTMs have brought indirect displacement to local residents, local people have not become victims of rural tourism gentrification. Instead, they benefit from rural tourism development opportunities. Meanwhile, RTMs have compromised to adapt to the Renqing society in rural China, in which local residents are supported by a strong social network. The findings demonstrate new forms of indirect displacement and respond to the specifics of rural places in tourism gentrification studies in rural China.

To preserve and to protect vanishing signs: activism through art, ethnography, and linguistics in a gentrifying city

ABSTRACT This article explores how a semiotics of the artistic aesthetics of New York City storefronts is deployed as activism against processes of gentrification and redevelopment. We examine how this creative endeavor by two local photographers compares to our own ethnographic and linguistic interventions uncovering and addressing storefront signage in gentrifying Brooklyn. We also compare this art activism to the ways in which developers and nations use art in various ways in the service of their placemaking goals. In doing so, we highlight both the innovative power of artistic framing to preserve and protect storefronts as salvage anthropology as well as the limits of this effort. We conclude with a discussion of how ethnography and activist art can yield different, yet critical mobilizations in the pursuit of maintaining multicultural communities and diversity in the neo-liberalizing city.