Gentrification

Mireille Diestchy and François Nowakowski, École nationale supérieure d’architecture de Strasbourg  

Definition 

Gentrification can be defined as a social relationship of appropriation of space that pits unequally endowed actors and groups against each other (Chabrol, Collet, et al., 2016, p.24-25). The process of gentrification has been widely observed and described in the central districts of cities, where the urban qualities (heritage, cultural facilities, shops, accessibility to the various transport networks) appear to be at odds with the low property and land values of the assets, to which are often added forms of devaluation of their image (Lussault, 2013). The process of gentrification involves, in a way, realigning property and land values with the urban values of the area by changing the built substance and the image of the area, leading to the eviction of the working classes to the periphery and the arrival of social classes that are culturally (Florida, 2002) and financially better endowed. This transformation involves a variety of agents (artists, developers, local authorities, property owners, etc.) who will contribute to transformations that may affect public spaces and their practices, the tourist visibility of the place (through Airbnb in particular), often based on heritage, or through the promotion of ‘urban art’ practices (Adam & Comby, 2020). These complex factors mean that gentrification can be seen as ‘the social product of a complex game in which sedentary and mobile people live side by side, where population movements, planning decisions, stakeholder strategies and the particular ways in which different social groups live and cohabit combine’ (Lévy, 2002). 

Background information and contemporary debate 

The classic theories of gentrification emerged at the turn of the 1980s and played a significant role in the development of one of the most dynamic fields in international urban studies. These early works theorised gentrification based on studies of British and American cities. They proposed a linear conception of the gentrification process and an analysis of the phenomenon in several phases (stages). In response to these approaches, which were considered too rigid, other works emphasised the diversity of actors involved (Ley, 1996). These classic approaches to the phenomenon have highlighted two areas of analysis:   

• Gentrification seen as a demand emanating from actors, or ‘pioneers,’ from artistic and cultural circles who seek a form of emancipation by investing in these spaces.  
• Pointing to the role of capital, other researchers theorise gentrification as a translation of a class struggle in cities (Smith, 1996), which can take the form of a ‘struggle for places’ (Lussault, 2009).

Since then, numerous studies have demonstrated the complexity and complementarity of these approaches, highlighting, in particular, the diversity of the players involved in this phenomenon. The combined and differentiated involvement of various private and public players in gentrification processes, depending on the context, is part of a wider process of neo-liberalisation of urban transformation based on pro-business policies aimed at attracting private investors to urban regeneration projects (Pinson, 2020).   

References 

Chabrol, M., Collet, A., Giroud, M., Launay, L., Rousseau, M., & Ter Minassian, H. (2016). Gentrifications. Editions Amsterdam. 

Adam, M., & Comby, E., (Eds.) (2020). Le capital dans la cité. Une encyclopédie critique de la ville. Editions Amsterdam.  

Florida, R. (2002). The rise of the creative class: And how it’s transforming work, leisure, community and everyday life. Basic Books. 

Ley, D. (1996). The new middle class and the remaking of the central city. Oxford University Press. 

Lussault, M., (2013). Valeur spatiale. In J. Lévis, & M. Lussault (Eds.), Dictionnaire de la géographie et de l’espace des sociétés (pp. 1065–1067). Belin.

Lussault, M. (2009). De la lutte des classes à la lutte des places. Grasset.  

Pinson, G. (2020). La ville néolibérale. Presses universitaires de France. 

Smith, N. (1996). The new urban frontier. Gentrification and the revanchist city. Routledge.