Teaching and Learning Guide for: Gentrification: What ItIs, Why It Is, and What Can Be Done About It

Kate ShawUniversity of Melbourne

Author’s Introduction

Gentrification is an important component of urban development, and essential to anyproper understanding of uneven development. It is also a highly contested concept. It haswhat can be called a ‘typical’ pattern, with a myriad of variations. These variations are soextensive that some scholars argue that gentrification is a ‘chaotic concept’, that is, a con-cept so broad as to lose its analytical coherency. Others counter that the logic of gentrifi-cation has become so generalised in the 21st century that it should be seen as no less thana fundamental state and market-driven ‘class remake’ of the city.This Teaching and Learning Guide helps to conceptualise gentrification as a continuumwhich accommodates all the variations. Understanding gentrification in this way enablesan intellectual approach that considers the possibilities for progressive policy responses toits inequitable effects.

Author Recommends

Smith, Neil (1979). Toward a theory of gentrification: a back to the city movementby capital, not people, Journal of the American Planners Association 45, pp. 538–548.This seminal paper applies a political-economic analysis to the process of gentrification,arguing that it is an inherent component of capitalist development. It set the ground formany subsequent debates, and continues to be as relevant now as it was then. Smith’stheory of the rent gap – possibly the single most significant contribution to understandinggentrification – is detailed in this paper.

Rose, Damaris (1984). Rethinking gentrification: beyond the uneven developmentof marxist urban theory. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 1, pp. 47–74.Rose challenges the political-economy analysis as the only explanation for gentrification.She argues that it is a result also of restructured labour markets and changing lifestyles thatare producing different kinds of households (e.g. single parent and ⁄or female-headed)with good reason for choosing to live in ‘gentrified’ areas. This is the first paper to raisethe notion of gentrification as a ‘chaotic concept’.

Ley, David (1994). Gentrification and the politics of the new middle class. Envi-ronment and Planning D, Society and Space 12, pp. 53–74.This paper discusses the rise of a ‘new middle class’ in Canada with a left-liberal politics,which Ley argues is driving gentrification at least in this part of the world. Ley is aproponent of the argument that gentrification is a cultural movement shaped by people’spreferences for an inner-city, ‘gentrified’ lifestyle.

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Lees, Loretta (1994). Rethinking gentrification: beyond the positions of econom-ics or culture. Progress in Human Geography 18 (2), pp. 137–150.This important paper spells out the competing economic and cultural explanations forgentrification and draws together a large literature that essentially points to both explana-tions having a role to play.

Hackworth, Jason and Smith, Neil (2001). The Changing State of Gentrification,Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie 94 (4), pp. 464–477.Another seminal work that introduces a model of waves of gentrification that account forits changing patterns over time.

Atkinson, Rowland and Bridge, Gary (2005). Gentrification in a global context: thenew urban colonialism. London: Routledge.This whole book is a collection of stories about gentrification from all over the world.The introduction is a very good summary of the debates up to 2005.

Slater, Tom (2006). The eviction of critical perspectives from gentrificationresearch, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 30 (4), pp. 737–757.This is a provocative piece that argues that gentrification research has itself become gen-trified, in that scholars are no longer as interested in documenting the inequitable effectsof gentrification, especially displacement, as they once were. Slater argues that the focushas swung too much in favour of the interests and motivations of the gentrifiers, at theexpense of those who suffer from the process. Volume 32, issue no. 1 of the InternationalJournal of Urban and Regional Research (2008) carries an interesting collection of responsesto Slater’s piece.

Lees, Loretta and Ley, David (2008). Introduction to special issue on gentrifica-tion and public policy. Urban Studies, 45 (12), pp. 2379–2384.With the argument over cultural or economic explanations having worn itself out (orbeen resolved, depending on your point of view!) the attention of scholars is turning towhat to do about gentrification. This special issue edited by Lees and Ley draws togethera selection of papers on the relationship of policy to gentrification: do state policiesalways facilitate gentrification or can they work to mitigate its negative effects?

Porter, Libby and Shaw, Kate (2009), Whose Urban Renaissance? An internationalcomparison of urban regeneration strategies. London: Routledge.This book is a collection of stories of urban regeneration strategies on the ground – fromstate and market strategies that deliberately bring about gentrification to government inter-ventions designed to avoid it or at least protect vulnerable residents. The introduction andconclusion develop the notion of gentrification as being on a continuum of social andeconomic geographic change based on patterns of disinvestment and reinvestment.

Lees, Loretta, Slater, Tom and Wyly, Elvin (2008). Gentrification. London:Routledge.This is the most comprehensive textbook on gentrification in existence. It covers everypossible aspect of gentrification and all the relevant debates, and is an excellent resourcefor all students of gentrification.

Online Materials

http://members.lycos.co.uk/gentrification/Gentrification Web, designed by Tom Slater: ‘Either disinvestment and decay or gentri-fication and displacement is a false choice for low-income communities’.

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http://www.theregoestheneighbourhood.org/There Goes the Neighbourhood is an exhibition, residency, discussion and publishingproject. The central element of this project is an exploration of the politics of urbanspace, with a focus on Redfern, Sydney. The project examines the complex life of citiesand how the phenomenon of gentrification is altering the relationship between democ-racy and demography around the world. Although urban change itself is not always a badthing, gentrification often happens at an accelerated rate, out pricing the lower incomeand marginalized communities from the neighbourhood and dislocating them from theirexisting connections to urban space. The project brings together artists from Australia andaround the world whose work addresses these issues.

http://www.inura.org/The International Network for Urban Research and Action is a network of peopleinvolved in action and research in localities and cities. The Network consists of activistsand researchers from community and environmental groups, universities and local admin-istrations, who wish to share experiences and to participate in common research. Exam-ples of the issues that Network members are involved in include: major urban renewalprojects, the urban periphery, community-led environmental schemes, urban traffic andtransport, inner city labour markets, do-it-yourself culture and social housing provision.In each case, the research is closely tied to, and is a product of, local action and initiative.

http://www.architectsforpeace.org/index.phpArchitects for peace is a humanitarian, not for profit professional organisation for archi-tects, urban designers, engineers, planners, landscape architects and environmentalists,seeking urban development based on social justice, solidarity, respect and peace.

http://www.ehow.com/how_5045061_fight-gentrification.htmlHow to fight gentrification (from a site on how to do just about anything)

Sample syllabus: Gentrification: what it is, why it is and what can be done about it

Topics for lectures and readings:

Week 1. Introduction: gentrification, its variations and its viability as a coherentconceptShaw, Kate (2008). Gentrification: what it is, why it is, and what can be done about it.

Geography Compass 2 (5), pp. 1697–1728.

Week 2. Gentrification’s variations I: variation in interpretationsSmith, Neil (1982). Gentrification and uneven development. Economic Geography 58 (1),

pp. 39–55.Ley, David (2003). Artists, aestheticisation and the field of gentrification. Urban Studies

40 (12), pp. 2527–2544.Vicario, Lorenzo and Martinez Monje, P. Manuel (2005) Another ‘Guggenheim effect’?

Central city projects and gentrification in Bilbao. In: Atkinson, R. and Bridge, G.(eds) Gentrification in a Global Context: the new urban colonialism. London: Routledge

Week 3. Gentrification’s variations II: variation in assessments of displace-mentFreeman, Lance and Braconi, Frank (2002). Gentrification and displacement. The Urban

Prospect 8 (1), pp. 1–4.

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Hamnett, Chris (2003). Gentrification and the middle-class remaking of inner London,1961–2001. Urban Studies 40 (12), pp. 2401–2426.

Slater, Tom (2006). The eviction of critical perspectives from gentrification research.International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 30 (4), pp. 737–757.

Week 4. Gentrification’s variations III: variation in the agentsWarde, Alan (1991). Gentrification as consumption: issues of class and gender.

Environment and Planning D, Society and Space 9, pp. 223–232.Smith, Neil (1992). New city, new frontier: the Lower East Side as wild, wild west.

In: Sorkin, M. (ed.) Variations on a theme park. USA: The Noonday Press.Rose, Damaris (1996). Economic restructuring and the diversification of gentrification in

the 1980s: a view from a marginal metropolis. In: Caulfield, J. and Peake, L. (eds)City lives and city forms: critical research and Canadian urbanism. Toronto: University ofToronto Press.

Week 5. Gentrification’s variations IV: variation in formsZukin, Sharon (1989). Loft living. NJ: Rutgers University Press (Chapter 1: Living lofts

as terrain and market).Smith, Neil (1996). The New Urban Frontier: gentrification and the revanchist city. London:

Routledge (Chapter 2: Is gentrification a dirty word?).Ley, David (1996). The New Middle Class and the remaking of the central city. UK:

Oxford University Press (Chapter 2: The changing inner-city housing market).Davidson, Mark and Lees, Loretta (2005). New-build gentrification and London’s

riverside renaissance. Environment and Planning A 37 (7), pp. 1165–1190.

Week 6. Is ‘gentrification’ too broad a concept to be meaningful?Rose, Damaris (1984) Rethinking gentrification: beyond the uneven development of

marxist urban theory. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 1, pp. 47–74.Beauregard, Robert (1986) The chaos and complexity of gentrification. In: Smith,

N. and Williams, P. (eds) Gentrification of the city. USA: Allen and Unwin.Lees, Loretta (2003b). Super-gentrification: the case of Brooklyn Heights, New York

City. Urban Studies 40 (12), pp. 2487–2509.Clark, Eric (2005). The order and simplicity of gentrification – a political challenge.

In: Atkinson, R. and Bridge, G. (eds) Gentrification in a global context: the new urbancolonialism. London: Routledge.

Week 7. Accounting for the variations? Waves of gentrificationHackworth, Jason and Smith, Neil (2001). The changing state of gentrification. Tijdschrift

voor Economische en Sociale Geografie 94 (4), pp. 464–477.Smith, Neil (2002). New globalism, new urbanism: gentrification as global urban

strategy. Antipode 3, pp. 427–450.

Week 8. The underlying logics of gentrification I: The production of the gentri-fied environment: disinvestment and reinvestment in urban coreSmith, Neil and LeFaivre, Michelle (1984). A class analysis of gentrification. In: London, B.

and Palen, J.J. (eds) Gentrification, displacement and neighbourhood revitalisation. New York:State University of New York Press.

Smith, Neil (1987). Of yuppies and housing: gentrification, social restructuring, and theurban dream, Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 5, pp. 151–172.

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Week 9. The underlying logics of gentrification II: the production of the gentri-fiers: culture, consumption and the new middle classLey, David (1994). Gentrification and the politics of the new middle class. Environment

and Planning D, Society and Space 12, pp. 53–74.Caulfield, Jon (1994). City form and everyday life, Toronto’s gentrification and critical social

practice. Canada: University of Toronto Press (Chapter 5: Everyday life, inner-cityresettlement, and critical social practice).

Week 10. Do we need a new ‘geography of neighbourhood renewal’, or cangentrification be understood as part of a continuum: complex, but coherent?Lees, Loretta (2000). A reappraisal of gentrification: towards a ‘geography of

gentrification’. Progress in Human Geography 18 (2), pp. 137–150.Van Criekingen, Mathieu and Decroly, Jean-Michel (2003). Revisiting the diversity of

gentrification: neighbourhood renewal processes in Brussels and Montreal. UrbanStudies 40 (12), pp. 2451–2468.

Lees, Loretta, Slater, Tom and Wyly, Elvin (2008). Gentrification. London: Routledge(Chapter 5: Contemporary gentrification).

Week 11. Gentrification on a continuum of social and economic geographicchangePorter, Libby and Shaw, Kate (2009). Whose Urban Renaissance? An international comparison

of urban regeneration strategies. London: Routledge (Chapter 1: Introduction, andChapter 24 Rising to a challenge).

Week 12. The policy implications of understanding gentrification as part of acontinuumShaw, Kate (2005a). Local limits to gentrification: implications for a new urban policy.

In: Atkinson, R. and Bridge, G. (eds) Gentrification in a global context: the new urbancolonialism. London: Routledge.

Ley, David and Dobson, Cory (2008). Are there limits to gentrification? The contextsof impeded gentrification in Vancouver. Urban Studies 45 (12), pp. 2471–2498.

Walks, Alan and August, Martine (2008). The factors inhibiting gentrification in areaswith little non-market housing: policy lessons from the Toronto experience. UrbanStudies 45 (12), pp. 2594–2625.

Shaw, Kate (2008). Commentary: is there hope for policy? Urban Studies 45 (12),pp. 2637–2642.

Focus Questions

1. Who wins and who loses from this process known as gentrification?2. Who or what do you think causes it?3. What do you think of the argument made by David Ley and Jon Caulfield that artists

can drive gentrification?4. Do you think the political economy and cultural explanations for gentrification are

complementary or reconcilable?5. Do you think gentrification is a chaotic or a coherent concept?6. Does the continuum adequately replace the stage model of gentrification?7. What kinds of policy interventions can be made to limit the negative effects of gentri-

fication, and how successful do you think these are, or can be?

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