Gentrification

Anarchist Punks Resisting Gentrification: Countercultural Contestations of Space in the New Berlin

by David Drissel

Questioning residential (dis)continuities: personal residential trajectories, cultural capital and social (de)mobility

by Michaela Benson

I gave this paper at BSA Annual Conference, Leeds University, April 2012 and am currently working it up for publication. If you are interested in seeing the draft copy, please contact me directly.

Drawing on interview data collected in five neighbourhoods in and around London, this paper questions how the middle... more Drawing on interview data collected in five neighbourhoods in and around London, this paper questions how the middle classes mobilize their residential histories – in particular prior residential locations – as they make claims to belonging in their current neighbourhoods and what these histories do for them. It takes as its starting point an understanding of claims to belonging as integral to processes of distinction, part of a dynamic process whereby people seek recognition for their residential choices. On the one hand, it becomes clear that people are keen to draw out the similarities in the places that they have lived, posturing a 'habitus' that makes it almost second nature for them to live in their current neighbourhood. On the other hand, others clearly present their current choice of neighbourhood as distinct from previous places that they have lived, recalling a trajectory out of neighbourhoods, that from their current standpoint, are less desirable, or, conversely, more desirable. The examination of these residential histories are telling, demonstrating that residential pasts may serve as a source of cultural capital under particular circumstances, while for others the social distance of their current neighbourhoods from prior neighbourhoods is indicative of their social (de)mobility. Claims to belonging and what these do for people thus need to be understood within wider discourses about people's residential trajectories.

Is the Beltline Bad for Atlanta?

by Alex Sayf Cummings

Progressives across the United States have applauded the proposed development of a new ring of light rail, parks, and... more Progressives across the United States have applauded the proposed development of a new ring of light rail, parks, and bike and walking trails around Atlanta's in-town neighborhoods, a project called the Beltline.  Conservatives and suburbanites have, predictably, opposed the measure, continuing a long history of opposition to public transit in the South that is intimately tied up with issues of class and race.  Yet opposition to the project from the Left, particularly among black activists, has been very little noticed.  Georgia State historian Alex Sayf Cummings examines criticisms of the program in terms of equity and justice ahead of a July 31 funding referendum.

Beyond Preservation: Rebuilding Old Shanghai

by Non Arkaraprasertkul

Arkaraprasertkul, Non. “Beyond Preservation: Rebuilding Old Shanghai” The Exposition Magazine of the University of Oxford. 3 (Hilary Issue): 10-18 (2010)

Middle Class Neighbourhood Attachment in Paris and Milan: Partial Exit and Profound Rootedness

by Alberta Andreotti

In T. Blokland, & M. Savage (a cura di), Networked Urbanism: Social Capital in the City (pp. 127-143). Ashgate.
co-authored with Patrick Le Galès

In recent years, there has been a growing recognition that the nature of urban social capital is affected not only by... more In recent years, there has been a growing recognition that the nature of urban social capital is affected not only by the problems of the urban poor, but also by the strategies of the affluent middle classes. European cities have historically been characterised by greater social integration than found in the US. However, contemporary urban trends in Europe, for instance associated with gentrification, segregation, and more generally ‘the end of urbanism’ may entail significant shifts in the social fabric of European cities. This chapter, based on an exploratory comparative empirical research in France and Italy, examines whether we can detect the partial “exit” of upper middle class both from their national society and from the cities in which they live. We tackle this question from a micro perspective, looking at the experience of the individuals, their narratives and focusing on a specific angle: the social networks of managers and engineers in Paris and Milan.

Globalising European Urban Bourgeoisies? Rooted middle classes and partial exit in Paris, Lyon, Madrid and Milan

by Alberta Andreotti

with Patrick Le Galès and Francisco Javier Moreno Fuentes

Introduction to a fothcoming book:
This book aims at empirically testing the role of urban upper middle classes... more Introduction to a fothcoming book:
This book aims at empirically testing the role of urban upper middle classes in the transformations experienced by contemporary European societies, linking our analysis to the debate on the emergence of a transnational bourgeoisie. In this book we argue (and try to provide empirical evidence to prove) that these groups are becoming at the same time more cosmopolitan AND more locally rooted. European urban upper
middle classes have to be analysed in relation to their strategies to gain resources from the international world, and to escape the constraints of national society, while remaining part of it (we call this “partial exit”). 
MEANWHILE, they are also part of urban societies, remain deeply rooted at the local level, and develop strategies to mix with other social and ethnic groups in some domains, while staying away and increasing distance in some others. Beyond simple analysis of secession or gentrification, this book makes
sense of this “partial exit” logic both from the national and from the urban point of view. 
We argue that European urban middle classes are becoming more mobile, partially “exiting” from the national society, and we bring evidence of this (friends, networks, children, jobs, holidays, values). They also invest resources in the cities and neighbourhoods where they live, they only look for secession or
gated communities strategies in certain contexts, but remain in control of the social and spatial distance they want to keep in relation to diverse social and ethnic groups.
 Is a new European managerial service class in the making in European metropolis in relation to European/global processes?
 Is there some pattern of social differentiation emerging, is this segment of the population adopting “exit” or “partial exit” strategies in respect to the nation state?
 Is this segment of the population adopting “exit” or “partial exit” strategies emerging from urban
practices and attempts to “exit” from the urban fabric? 

Social Dimensions of Urban Restructuring: Urban Gardening, Residents' Participation, Gardening Exhibitions

by Martin Klamt

Halifax’s Nocturne and the spectacle of neoliberal civics

by Max Haiven

Forthcoming in the journal Public, no.45, 2012.

Halifax’s Nocturne: Art at Night has been met with almost universal enthusiasm from both the city’s arts community as... more Halifax’s Nocturne: Art at Night has been met with almost universal enthusiasm from both the city’s arts community as well as local political and business elites. This essay argues that, while there is much laudable about civic spectacles like Nocturne, and while many of the works and performances they feature are reflexive and critical, they risk participating in (and promoting) what I term “neoliberal civics.” Ironically, these public events take place and have resonance only within a cultural, social and political landscape already dramatically privatized, one where the meaning of “creativity” has become a battleground.

Revolutionary Ambition in an Age of Austerity: An Interview with Neil Smith

by David Hugill

Published in Upping the Anti: A Journal of Theory and Action, #13, 2011

Globalização e gentrificação: teoria e empiria

by Walter Rodrigues

published in SOCIOLOGIA, problemas e práticas, nº29, 1999

Making a sustainable neighbourhood: gentrification and urban regeneration in Glasgow.

by Andrea Botti

The Post-Industrial Regime of Production/Consumption and the Rural Gentrification of the New West Archipelago

by J. Dwight Hines

The contemporary American West is undergoing a round of rapid restructuring, which has been characterized as the shift... more The contemporary American West is undergoing a round of rapid restructuring, which has been characterized as the shift from landscapes of production to landscapes of consumption. Here I propose that a more effective description of current changes, which allows us to retain focus on the relevant inter- and intra-class-based dynamics of an ongoing capitalist-Modernity, is as a result of the transition from the prior dominance of a regime of production/consumption of commodities/natural-resources to the increasing ascendancy of the production/consumption of “experiences.” The rising dominance of this regime is, in large part, the result of the locally dramatic in-migration by ex-urban members of the post-industrial middle class to the “amenity-rich” counties of the region. This process of rural gentrification exacerbates preexisting social, geographic, and environmental disparities within the region creating an “archipelago” of changing communities commonly referred to as the “New” West. Drawing on almost two years of ethnographic research from one such “island” community in south-central Montana, I describe local-level change between the relative primacy of the two regimes of production/consumption.

In pursuit of experience: The postindustrial gentrification of the rural American West

by J. Dwight Hines

Contemporary rural gentrification – the colonization of rural communities and small-towns by members of the ex-urban... more Contemporary rural gentrification – the colonization of rural communities and small-towns by members of the ex-urban middle class – is a nationwide phenomenon that contradicts nearly two centuries of US urbanization. While previous research primarily describes such counter-urbanization as representing a profound divergence from previous patterns (i.e. urbanization, mass production/consumption, etc.), I contend that rural gentrification is best understood as the product of both continuity and change relative to the ideas/practices of Modernity and current postindustrialization. Based on ethnographic research conducted in a community in south central Montana, I present evidence that the choice by middle-class newcomers to migrate to the rural US is simultaneously the product of: 1) the continued efficacy of the Modern ideals of authenticity and progress; and 2) their aspirations to distinguish themselves as members of an emerging class faction – the postindustrial middle class (PIMC)– through their emphasis upon the production and consumption of experiences.

 Lonely Islands: Culture and Poverty in Archaeological Perspective. Historical Archaeology 45(3):41-54, 2011

by Christopher Matthews

Transnational Nation-Building: Beijing's 798 Art Zone

by Christen Cornell

Chapter in "China and the West: Encounters with the Other in Culture, Arts, Politics and Everyday Life, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, forthcoming early 2012

This essay is a study of Beijing’s most celebrated contemporary art district, 798 Art Zone (798), specifically its... more This essay is a study of Beijing’s most celebrated contemporary art district, 798 Art Zone (798), specifically its production as a national cultural space in a global context. Its primary interest is in the relationship between the national and the transnational in 798, or the Chinese and the “cosmopolitan”, and the ways these work together to contribute to the post-socialist Chinese nation-building project. 798 began as a community of primarily Chinese artists and a transnational arts industry, supported with transnational capital, and, until 2006, was viewed with suspicion by the national government and its subsidiary groups. The area is today, however, a national showpiece for China’s “open and progressive society,” administered by the local government as an official Cultural Creative Industries Precinct  and promoted as a symbol of “new Chinese culture” . Still comprised largely of transnational arts workers, and (more than ever) flush with global capital, the district now plays an important role in the rhetoric of China’s harmonious society while providing a cosmopolitan face for Beijing. By outlining some of the forces that shaped this process, this essay argues that in 798 the transnational is essentially reinforcing the national – a newly perceived national culture forged in the context of globalisation.

Authors Meet Critics

by Stuart Schrader

Authors Meet Critics
IJURR, September 2011, 35.5:1070-1082
DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-2427.2011.01108.x

A joint Initiative of the International Journal of Urban and Regional Research (IJURR) and the Studies in Urban and Social Change book series published by Wiley-Blackwell

Discussion with Jamie Peck of his articles:

Struggling with the Creative Class (2005, IJURR, 29.4, 740–70)
Recreative City: Amsterdam, Vehicular Ideas, and the Adaptive Spaces of Creativity Policy (forthcoming, IJURR)

IJURR's online discussion series featuring senior scholars and graduate students/recent PhDs. IJURR published the... more IJURR's online discussion series featuring senior scholars and graduate students/recent PhDs. IJURR published the first discussion in the print version of the journal. It's a great conversation with Jamie Peck about his critique of Richard Florida and, more generally, of territorial competitiveness--although it should not be taken as the usual peer-reviewed journal fare. It's more like a high-level online chat. For example, in my question, where it says "disparate," the correct word is "desperate." I'm talking about convergence, not divergence! As a former copy editor, I know who to blame: the copy editor! Anyway, Professor Peck's answer to my question is particularly good, in my opinion.


Subsequent discussions are being published serially here: http://www.ijurr.org/view/authorsmeetcritics.html

This City Between Us (Redux)

by J. R. Carpenter

Carpenter, J.R. (2011). This City Between Us (Redux). Media : Culture : Pedagogy, 15(1). Retrieved from http://mcp.educ.ubc.ca/v15n01BornDigital_Article05_Carpenter

In 2006 I was commissioned to create a web art project in commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Conseil des... more In 2006 I was commissioned to create a web art project in commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Conseil des Arts de Montreal. It was an honour and a challenge for me, as an English-speaking immigrant to Montreal, to collate the cacophony of voices and contradictory histories of my community. I live on the same block Mordecai Richler grew up on. The tour busses still come by looking for him, even as gentrification tosses out the old tenants. I wanted to represent my neighbours within a matrix of community, to explore the intimacies born of our proximity. The resulting work, Entre Ville, is an intimate view of my neighbourhood’s jumbled intimacy of back balconies, yards and alleyways. Entre means between. Entre Ville is a walk through an interior city. Poetry is not hard to find between the long lines of peeling-paint fences plastered with notices, spray painted with bright abstractions and draped with trailing vines. Though Montreal is well known for its language issues, I tried to present Entre Ville in a neighbourhood vernacular, where cooking smells, noisy neighbours and laundry lines criss-cross the alleyway one sentence at a time. http://Luckysoap.com/entreville

Trajectories of Language: Orders of Indexical Meaning in Washington DC's Chinatown

by Gabriella Modan

Starbucks İşgali ve Mutena Kampus (Starbucks Occupation and Gentrification of the Campus)

by Alparslan Nas

Published at Bianet, 14 December 2011

Boğaziçi'de ortaya konan kampüsün mutenalaşmasına yönelik farkındalık, diğer kampüslere sıçrar mı bilinmez ama oraya... more Boğaziçi'de ortaya konan kampüsün mutenalaşmasına yönelik farkındalık, diğer kampüslere sıçrar mı bilinmez ama oraya hayat veren bir karşıt-hızın doğuşunu müjdelediği kesin. ...

The Derelict, the Deserving Poor, and the Lumpen: A History of the Politics of Representation in the Downtown Eastside

by Jesse Proudfoot

(2011) In Stan Douglas: Abbott & Cordova, 7 August 1971. Stan Douglas. Vancouver, BC: Arsenal Pulp Press.

Immediately to the left of Stan Douglas’s photo-mural Abbott & Cordova, 7 August 1971, a series of portraits and... more Immediately to the left of Stan Douglas’s photo-mural Abbott & Cordova, 7 August 1971, a series of portraits and quotations proposes an interpretation of the Woodward’s site and its historical significance. Adorning the entrance to one of the chain stores, they depict local residents and their answers to questions such as, “What do you think of the changes going on in the area?” and “What do you think about the Woodward’s development?” Considering that the piece was created by the developers, it is unsurprising that it offers a sunny interpretation. The carefully chosen faces of marginalized Downtown Eastside residents, new middle-class arrivals, and community leaders all speak of the positive impacts of the new development and the ongoing gentrification of the neighbourhood. Couched in the language of “social mix,” their quotations extol the virtues of “diversity,” misleadingly implying that the Downtown Eastside—one of the most diverse neighbourhoods in the city—somehow lacked diversity in the past. The quotes trumpet the social housing component of Woodward’s, even though the number of housing units is a fraction of what community groups argued was necessary. And they make fallacious claims that the new businesses are employing Downtown Eastside residents and helping them to “get off the streets”—as if the problem of poverty in the Downtown Eastside was the result of too few minimum-wage jobs. Writing on Douglas’s piece in the Walrus, Leigh Kamping-Carder remarks that real-estate developers often forget that neighbourhoods like the Downtown Eastside are palimpsests—spaces continuously written over by different social groups throughout their history. Pace Kamping-Carder, what texts like those described in the previous paragraph suggest is that developers are in fact acutely aware of the histories of the places they seek to remake, at least insofar as it helps them sell condominiums. (...)