Gentrification Process Research Articles

Spatial dynamics of incoming movers and the state‐led gentrification process: The case of Rotterdam

AbstractAlthough gentrification and its associated changes in residential mobility have been widely studied, surprisingly little attention has been paid to the changing origin locations of gentrification‐related residential moves. In this study, we use fine‐grained register data from the Dutch Central Bureau of Statistics to uncover changing residential mobility patterns to and within the city of Rotterdam, the Netherlands. We identify that the state‐led gentrification process goes hand in hand with the changing socioeconomic characteristics of in‐movers and the changing origin locations of residential moves. The city of Rotterdam increasingly attracts middle‐ to high‐income households from other core cities in the Netherlands, a process that we understand as inter‐urban gentrification spillover. In parallel, intra‐urban moves by economically vulnerable residents are declining, especially toward and within gentrifying neighborhoods. This represents evidence of exclusionary displacement. We conclude that the spillover effects of contemporary gentrification should be understood beyond an intra‐urban metropolitan perspective since gentrification in one city can enhance gentrification in another.

Graphic Heritage and the Making of Place

ABSTRACT This article centers on three retail sites within Walthamstow, East London in the UK – Walthamstow High Street and Hoe Street; Orford Road within Walthamstow Village; and the western end of the High St in the St James area. Each of these sites utilize everyday urban “graphic heritage” – shop front design, colors, typefaces and symbols – in the making of place. However, the graphic heritage contributes to the development of very different “designscapes” and experiences of place for different people. Drawing from a range of interdisciplinary sources the article focuses on graphic heritage as a little studied feature of the urban retail streetscape. It suggests that, in a retail context, graphic heritage is used strategically by different stakeholders in placemaking activities. In some cases, this unfolds as an organically developed designscape over time. In others, formal development creates a more planned makeover. The different approaches discussed raise questions as to how this type of everyday urban graphic heritage might contribute to processes of gentrification and experiences of inclusion and exclusion; how the power and politics inherent in these seemingly mundane design choices can impact on the making of place; and how the notion of “design literacy” can be further refined in relation to the diverse range of stakeholders within the urban retail environment.

Urban Gentri: Serious Game on Learning about Gentrification

As a global phenomenon, gentrification has far-reaching social and economic implications. As civic engagement and public understanding are crucial for responding to gentrification, employing a game-based approach could be effective due to the games’ ludic attributes. However, existing gamified interventions often lack structured game design and empirical assessment of their learning effectiveness. As such, this study aims to develop a serious game (SG) and assess its effect on enhancing public understanding and awareness of gentrification using an Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation framework. A prototype of a serious board game, Urban Gentri, was developed to immerse participants in the process and consequences of gentrification. A Mechanics-Dynamics-Aesthetics framework was used when developing the rules of the game. Then, the study employed a mixed-methods approach, with forty-five participants completing pre- and post-tests and semi-structured exit interviews. Quantitative analysis showed a statistically significant increase in cognitive learning scores, demonstrating an improvement in the understanding of gentrification. The qualitative analysis of the exit interviews revealed the SG’s effectiveness in fostering empathy and encouraging participants to explore solutions (e.g., communication and policy interventions) to mitigate gentrification’s negative implications. Participants also expressed their willingness to engage in civic actions, such as supporting local businesses or paying attention to relevant news articles after playing the game. This implies the role-playing aspect allowed participants to empathize with different stakeholders, leading to a deeper appreciation of the complexities involved in gentrification. The findings highlight SGs’ potential for promoting public understanding and awareness of urban planning issues, including gentrification. By leveraging SGs as educational tools, planners and educators can create engaging platforms to inform the public and promote informed decision-making on complex urban issues.

In the shadow of sport mega-events: A critical analysis of the nexus between evictions, displacements, securitized gentrification and children's rights

This paper explores what has been described as the ‘dark side’ of sport mega-events – namely, processes of gentrification and mega-event-induced human evictions and displacements. Whilst researchers have established the regularity of such practices before and during sport mega-events, and that children inevitably are among the displaced, this research has, hitherto, seldom been synthesized within the broader children's rights context. In doing so, this conceptual paper critically examines children's rights issues that arise from Olympic-induced evictions and displacements. We argue that, from a children's rights perspective, the consequences of these practices impact children, young people, and their rights in a much more pervasive and deep-seated manner, affecting multiple children's rights, including their right to housing, education, and the best interests principle. This paper drives forward debates in the social study of sport mega-events, children's rights and urban processes and their social exclusions.

Sustainable tourism and governance strategies in gentrification contexts: a bibliometric análisis

Introduction: Sustainable tourism can have significant impacts on gentrification processes, both positive and negative; the promotion of responsible tourism can contribute to the revitalization of deteriorated urban areas, attracting investments that improve local infrastructure and services. The objective of the research is to analyze the main lines of research related to sustainable tourism and governance strategies in gentrification contexts.Methods: A quantitative type of research was developed, based on a retrospective and descriptive study, with a bibliometric approach, in the SCOPUS database during the period from 2004 to 2024, with no language restriction, although priority was given to articles in English. The search formula was: TITLE-ABS-KEY (“gentrification” AND “Sustainable” AND “tourism”). A total of 65 research papers were collected.Results: The behavior of the research was heterogeneous with a tendency of the research was characterized by a polynomial function with a confidence level of 41.85%. Research articles in the area of social sciences predominated. The most productive country was Spain with 14 research papers. Four lines of scientific research were identified and developed that may constitute an agenda for future research.Conclusions: Sustainable tourism is presented as a powerful tool for the economic and cultural development of local communities, while promoting environmental conservation.

The 15-minute city dilemma? Balancing local accessibility and gentrification in Gothenburg, Sweden

This article explores the relationships between gentrification and the realization of the 15-minute city vision in the city of Gothenburg, Sweden. Using unique Swedish registry micro-data, we track changes in local accessibility to urban social functions from 2011 to 2017 in neighborhoods experiencing different gentrification processes. Findings reveal a positive association between gentrification and improved local accessibility in low-income neighborhoods experiencing classic gentrification. The findings emphasize the need to balance socio-spatial polarization and 15-minute city planning, particularly in neighborhoods undergoing classic gentrification. Future studies should delve in more detail into potential displacement effects when gentrification and 15-minute city goals intersect.

Using adaptive cycles and panarchy to understand processes of touristification and gentrification in Valencia, Spain

This paper takes a multi-level approach to gain a better understanding of (tourism) gentrification and tourism excesses in three popular tourist neighbourhoods in Valencia, Spain. This city radically changed tourism policies in 2015, from a top-down approach that was focused on economic growth, towards one in which localhood and community development are stimulated. However, the change has done little to mitigate issues related to high levels of gentrification and touristification. This issue has been investigated using adaptive cycles and panarchy as a framework. Using these concepts has helped clarify how current policies mainly stimulate bottom-up innovations to overcome the lack of creative capacity at the local level (in other words, the ‘poverty trap’). Yet they insufficiently address processes that relate to the worldviews and higher governance levels that contribute to maintaining the current economic growth-oriented tourism ecosystem (the ‘rigidity trap’). The implications of our findings and ways forward conclude the paper.

Land financialization and gentrification: evidence from China

As land becomes detached from its social function and market speculation intensifies, housing prices tend to rise, rendering homeownership less affordable. Following the escalation of property values, gentrification is often observed as wealthier individuals and investors are attracted to neighborhoods that offer good amenities and potential returns on their investments. Utilizing diverse datasets from multiple sources in China, this paper unveils a positive association between land financialization and the occurrence of gentrification. It also reveals that land financialization is positively linked with housing prices while negatively associated with homeownership. Further investigation uncovers a more nuanced pattern. At lower levels of land financialization, the effects of gentrification are limited or even negative due to revitalization efforts and the gradual rise in property values during early-stage urban development dynamics. However, as land financialization surpasses a certain threshold, the intensification of investment and speculative activity substantially drives property price increases, leading to heightened gentrification processes. These findings underscore the need for thoughtful urban planning and policy interventions to ensure that the impacts of land financialization are managed in an equitable and sustainable manner.

Understanding the Compound Risk Context of Goma City Through the Pressure and Release Model

Goma, the capital of the North Kivu Province in the Democratic Republic of Congo, is a transborder and conflict-affected city that is also chronically vulnerable to volcanic eruptions. Using the extended version of the Pressure and Release model, this study examines Goma’s progressive vulnerability over the course of three volcanic disasters—the eruptions of Mount Nyiragongo in 1977, 2002, and 2021. We find that the rich natural resources and weak governance are the root causes of Goma’s chronic vulnerability to volcanic eruptions. In the first phase (1977–2002), an influx of ethnic groups seeking land as well as conflicts between them and natives over the land and natural resources can be regarded as dynamic pressure, generating unsafe conditions. In the second phase (2002–2021), the conflict added a global dimension, with the influx of global businesses and humanitarian organizations increasing the population pressure. It caused a gentrification process, in which the urban poor were pushed out to the marginal area of the city, which resulted in significant damage from the 2021 eruption. We find that globalization produces two opposing forces in the increased vulnerability; it accelerated economic prosperity in the region, on the one hand, but also caused a rapid population increase and increased progression, on the other.

Hospitality workers and gentrification processes: Elective belonging and reflexive complicity.

This paper contributes new understandings of the dynamics and processes of gentrification that contribute to wider transformations of class relations. We argue that the hospitality sector, specifically the tastes, dispositions and practices of young hospitality workers, are central in how gentrification processes currently function. We extend concepts of elective and selective belonging, and reflexive complicity, to analyse how young hospitality workers understand their own labouring practices as contributing to gentrification in their local areas. We show how their aesthetic and ethical orientations to place, especially their workplaces, make their experience of hospitality work more palatable. At the same time, their tastes are 'put to work' in venues that contribute to the vibes and aesthetics aimed at middle class consumption practices, while creating symbolic boundaries for long-term residents who are being ostracised in the process. In this way, the high cultural capital bar workers possess thus become spatial bouncers for high economic capital property developers, where reflexive complicity is instrumentalised as a process of symbolic violence. We propose that hospitality labour, and the everyday relationalities and working practices of young workers, are crucial for understanding the contemporary processes of gentrification and class formation.

Stadtschmerz: Stories of Loss and Guilt in Times of Gentrification

This essay detects a genre of non-fiction, which it coins as Stadtschmerz. In this genre, middle class residents who experience alienation due to gentrification turn this experience into stories of loss and guilt (for being the target group of gentrification). This essay explores four canonical texts of Stadtschmerz from the mid-19th century to the present; the authors explore the gentrifying city as flâneurs and report on their findings in a feuilleton. As such, the essay shows how through expressing Stadtschmerz the middle-class attempts to cope with the making of the middle-class city. In this way, Stadtschmerz neutralizes the positionality of the writer and his readership within processes of gentrification. Furthermore, it offers readers voyeurism into the lives of the displaced lower classes. Lastly, Stadtschmerz processes middle-class anxiety amid gentrification. A deconstructive analysis of Stadtschmerz tells us that the experience of gentrification is above all a hot topic for the middle-class itself.

Resistance and Instigation: The Dubious Role of Squatters and Culture in the Gentrification of Amsterdam

This essay focuses on the question of whether artists necessarily contribute to government-driven gentrification or if they can also resist local government policies. It describes the development of Amsterdam, characterized by government-driven gentrification and examines the paradoxical role that artists play within this process, as they can both resist and contribute to this urban transformation. While the government uses creativity and culture to make neighborhoods attractive to the middle class, squatters, for instance, oppose this by creating alternative, autonomous art projects in squatted buildings. The essay also historicizes the complex relationships between squatters, artists and gentrification processes by referencing newspaper articles from the 1990s. The essay concludes by stating that through combining art with squatting, artists can resist the neoliberal strategies employed by the government to promote gentrification

Capturing Gentrification: The Roles of Charles Marville and Eugène Atget in Capturing the Transformation of Paris in the Nineteenth Century

Between 1853 and 1914, Paris (France), ‘the city of art’, underwent enormous changes due to the urban development plans of Baron Georges Haussmann. Although gentrification was coined in the 1960s by Ruth Glass, this Haussmannization’ of Paris shows multiple convincing similarities with contemporary forms of gentrification. Artists have been ascribed a rather ambivalent role in the gentrification process, as their presence in old, decayed, abandoned, or low-income neighborhoods was and is often seen as the first step towards gentrification. However, artists have also used their art to reflect on or even question gentrification. Especially photographers, whose discipline allows them to consciously curate and depict real life situations, have played an important role in capturing gentrification and its ramifications. Photographer Charles Marville (1813-1879) was commissioned by the state to document the neighborhoods that were demolished during the ‘Haussmannization’. Some forty years later, Eugène Atget (1857-1927) began photographing Parisian quarters that would be lost in urban planning. In this visual essay, the agency of photographers in (de)constructing gentrification is researched through an analysis of the work of Marville and Atget, discussing their objectives and styles and how these reflect the radical changes in Paris. The motivation of photographers seems to determine in what way their works represent gentrifying processes.

Interrogating the First Signs of Gentrification in Postcolonial Kota Tua, Jakarta

Colonial remnants, like buildings, streets and canals, are the main attraction of Kota Tua, the historical inner city of Jakarta. Considering known gentrification theories, the restoration and reuse of historical buildings and revitalization of public spaces in the area indicates gentrification is starting to take place here. This article interrogates these first signs of gentrification in the historical inner-city of Kota Tua, and the extent to which four characteristics of the gentrification process manifest themselves in the area. This paper concludes that although some characteristics of the gentrification process are taking place in Kota Tua, there are also developments that counter this observation, adding to the academic discussion on whether the gentrification process in Kota Tua materializes, and what the future of this postcolonial urban area entails.

A Polylogue on deconstructing gentrification

In this round table five expert participants discuss the process and effects of gentrification in Amsterdam, from their own perspectives and areas of expertise.

The 'Discovery' of Gentrification

This paper examines the rise of gentrification in 1970s Amsterdam, based on coverage of the Jordaan neighborhood in Het Parool and a limited number of other Dutch newspapers. Although the term was not yet common at the time, newspaper articles from the 1970s already show a critical attitude toward social change in a working-class neighborhood. Far before policymakers were talking about it, journalists identified the negative effects of gentrification, such as rising rents and a loss of neighborhood identity. The resistance and criticisms of Het Parool and original residents bear striking similarities to contemporary criticisms on gentrification, as visible in the mocking and stereotyping of gentrifiers. Interestingly, developments in American cities were used as a frame of reference for Dutch newspapers in this regard. This exploration of the initial phase of gentrification in Amsterdam shows that both residents and journalists have always viewed the process of gentrification with suspicion.

A dialogue on history and gentrification

For the second edition, AMJournal introduces the section of the ‘guest editor interview’ in the form of a dialogue between the editor and (another) renowned scholar in the field. For this edition, Tim Verlaan invited acclaimed scholar Suleiman Osman to discuss how and why history matters when investigating gentrification processes.

An analysis of diverse gentrification processes and their relationship to historic preservation activity in Chicago

ABSTRACT This article explores the unintended impacts of an immensely popular and far-reaching preservation program, the National Register of Historic Places, which was established to instill a sense of stewardship for heritage at a time when suburbanization and urban disinvestment threatened its existence. Anointing neighborhoods as “historic” has helped preserve them, but it has also increased market demand and facilitated gentrification. Drawing on census and preservation data, we use principal component and cluster analyses to identify neighborhoods in Chicago experiencing physical upgrading and the displacement of groups of lower socioeconomic status. Particular interest is placed on exploring neighborhoods characterized by gentrification and intensive preservation activity. The diversity in heritage-driven redevelopment processes and gentrification is then examined within three neighborhoods. The study reveals that preservation has not kept pace with changing demographic, housing, and consumption patterns within cities: a counterproductive policy lag exists, facilitating large-scale residential displacement of traditional urban populations, ranging from the most marginalized to the wealthier.

From agriculture to new town: land conversion towards new-build gentrification in the southwest of Jakarta, Indonesia

ABSTRACT Located in the southwest of Jakarta, Pagedangan has been known as one of the hotspots for large-scale residential complexes or ‘new town’ in the Jakarta Metropolitan Area, Indonesia. By using a diachronic approach, we aim to examine spatial transformations of rural Pagedangan at micro-scale from 1901 to 2022 which shows the trajectory of new-build gentrification in the study area. This study thoroughly examines how land conversion transforms the rural Pagedangan into gentrifying urban landscape using historical maps and multitemporal imageries. During the last decade, Pagedangan has experienced massive agricultural land conversion which increased land price in the area. It has become gentrified seen by the rise of new town’s urban economy. Meanwhile, pre-existing irregular settlements, or kampungs, have remained as an assemblage of enclaves in a new town, a realm that completely differs from their previous rural environment. Despite displacement has not yet been the main issue in Pagedangan, kampungs are still possibly at risk of disappearance. This study delivers a comprehensive empirical study on physical gentrification process to provide insights into urban studies discourse, especially in urban Asia. This study proposes kampung as an important spatial entity which government should consider in Indonesian land use planning and urban policy making.

HERITAGIZATION AS AN AUTHORITARIAN URBAN PRACTICE IN CHINA: Insights from Lijiang

AbstractHeritage preservation practices continue to be adopted as a tool to promote the regeneration of historic areas in China. Taking the experience of the Old Town of Lijiang (Dayan) as its starting point, this essay considers heritagization both as a process of gentrification and as an authoritarian urban practice that operates behind the regeneration process, contributing to the transformation of historic neighbourhoods into objects of display. It focuses particularly on the role played by local state actors and heritage regulations, showing how the construction and rearrangement of space as a form of ‘ordering’ serves the dominant classes, thus legitimizing the transformation of Lijiang and directly shaping people's lives. Finally, following recent accounts of gentrification led by historic preservation, the essay reflects on the ways in which heritage discourses and participatory‐like practices may be deployed to legitimize gentrification and hinder various forms of resistance at the local level.