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Research papers on Gentrification and displacement

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  1. Gentrification: Culture And Capital In The Urban Core

    Sharon Zukin · 1987 · Annual Review of Sociology · 674 citations

    Gentrification, the conversion of socially marginal and working-class areas of the central city to middle-class residential use, reflects a movement, that began in the 1960s, of private-market investment capital into downtown districts of major urban centers. Related to a shift in corporate investment and a corresponding expansion of the urban service economy, gentrification was seen more immediately in architectural restoration of deteriorating housing and the clustering of new cultural amenities in the urban core. Research on gentrification initially concentrated on documenting its extent, tracing it as a process of neighborhood change, and speculating on its consequences for reversing tre

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  2. Missing Marcuse: On gentrification and displacement

    Tom Slater · 2009 · City · 495 citations

    Peter Marcuse's contributions to the study of gentrification and displacement are immense, not just when measured in theoretical development, but in analytical rigour, methodological influence, cross‐disciplinary relevance and intellectual–political commitment to social justice. However, his contributions have been conveniently missed in the disturbing 21st‐century scholarly, journalistic, policy and planning rescripting of gentrification as a collective urban good. This paper charts and exposes the politics of knowledge production on this pivotal urban process by critically engaging with recent arguments that celebrate gentrification and/or deny displacement. I explain that these arguments

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  3. Gentrification, Displacement, and the Role of Public Investment

    Miriam Zuk, Ariel H. Bierbaum, Karen Chapple, et al. · 2017 · Journal of Planning Literature · 455 citations

    Scholarly interest in the relationship between public investments and residential displacement dates back to the 1970s and the aftermath of displacement related to urban renewal. A new wave of scholarship examines the relationship of gentrification and displacement to public investment in transit infrastructure. Scholarship has generally conflated gentrification and displacement; however, this review argues for a clearer analytical distinction between the two. Although the displacement discussion in the United States began with the role of the public sector and now has returned to the same focus, it will be necessary to overcome methodological shortcomings to arrive at more definitive conclu

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  4. Measuring Gentrification and Displacement in Greater London

    Rowland Atkinson · 2000 · Urban Studies · 349 citations

    The use of aggregate data to understand the linkages between gentrification and displacement has been considered problematic because of a lack of refinement or closeness to the nature of these processes as well as lacking the ability to 'track' displacees. This paper presents the results of pioneering work designed to overcome these problems by combining cross-sectional census data with spatially re-aggregated longitudinal census data (the Longitudinal Study). Using established approaches to measure gentrification, via proxy measures, and devising others for its potential displacees, the work demonstrates a displacement effect clustered around gentrified wards. Attempts are made to quantify

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  5. Gentrification, Displacement, and Tourism in Santa Cruz De Tenerife

    Luz Marina García Herrera, Neil Smith, Miguel Ángel Mejías Vera · 2007 · Urban Geography · 133 citations

    This paper analyzes the relationship between postwar urban redevelopment and the more recent transition that fused subsequent gentrification with tourism strategies in Santa Cruz de Tenerife (Canary Islands, Spain). First, it examines the long endeavor of local government to foster neighborhood change in coalition with tourism and commercial development planning, and documents the intimate connection between gentrification and displacement. Second, it sheds light on the entwined effects of gentrification and tourism in the transformation of this urban outpost of the European Union.

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  6. Unequal Displacement: Gentrification, Racial Stratification, and Residential Destinations in Philadelphia

    Jackelyn Hwang, Lei Ding · 2020 · American Journal of Sociology · 127 citations

    Drawing from sociological theory and research on residential mobility and neighborhood stratification, which primarily explain urban decline and persistent segregation, the authors propose a framework for examining residential displacement in the context of gentrification. Using this framework, this study assesses how gentrification shapes whether and where disadvantaged residents move, using a unique large-scale consumer credit database of residents in Philadelphia from 2002 to 2014. The authors find that gentrification’s consequences on the residential mobility patterns of financially disadvantaged residents are unequally distributed by the racial contexts in which gentrification is taking

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  7. Hygienisation, Gentrification, and Urban Displacement in Brazil

    Jeff Garmany, Matthew A. Richmond · 2019 · Antipode · 79 citations

    Abstract This article engages recent debates over gentrification and urban displacement in the global South. While researchers increasingly suggest that gentrification is becoming widespread in “Southern” cities, others argue that such analyses overlook important differences in empirical context and privilege EuroAmerican theoretical frameworks. To respond to this debate, in this article, we outline the concept of higienização (hygienisation), arguing that it captures important contextual factors missed by gentrification. Hygienisation is a Brazilian term that describes a particular form of urban displacement, and is directly informed by legacies of colonialism, racial and class stigma, info

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  8. Urban renewal without gentrification: toward dual goals of neighborhood revitalization and community preservation?

    Yu-Shu Zhu, Chang-Dong Ye · 2022 · Urban Geography · 55 citations

    ABSTRACT This study contributes to the debate on the psychological dimensions of displacement in urban renewal (UR) literature by examining how different modes of UR may disrupt or reconstruct the sense of home for affected residents in urban China. The forms of UR in China have evolved from the intensive pro-growth urban redevelopment that was prevalent in the 1990s and early 2000s to the emerging trend of micro-renewal, which features neighborhood renovation without physical displacement or the remaking of social classes. We distinguish between wholesale redevelopment and micro-renewal, then examine the impacts of these different modes of UR on post-renewal neighborhood attachment (NA). We

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  9. Touristification, commercial gentrification, and experiences of displacement in a disadvantaged neighborhood in Busan, South Korea

    Minji Kim, R. Holifield · 2022 · Journal of Urban Affairs · 32 citations

    ABSTRACT One of the most prominent topics in scholarship on touristification and gentrification is displacement, including not only direct physical displacement, but also the emotional and social impacts associated with indirect displacement. Although research on touristification and gentrification has begun to examine the experiences and perceptions of residents undergoing displacement in low-income urban neighborhoods, it has paid less attention to the spatial characteristics of indirect displacement and the distinctive characteristics of displacement associated specifically with tourism. In Gamcheon Culture Village (GCV) in Busan, South Korea, touristification and commercial gentrificatio

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  11. Gentrification and displacement

    Paul Watt · 2013 · The Encyclopedia of Global Human Migration · 30 citations

    Abstract This essay provides an overview of the topic of gentrification with an emphasis on displacement. According to the urban geographer Tom Slater (2009: 294), gentrification means “the transformation of a working‐class or vacant area of a city into middle‐class residential and/or commercial use.” Incoming high‐income groups therefore colonize (gentrify) a previously working‐class urban neighborhood, as occurred in postwar Islington, north London, which prompted the sociologist Ruth Glass to coin the term “gentrification” back in 1964 (Lees et al. 2008: 4). However, contemporary gentrification occurs on a far larger scale than in previous decades and refers more broadly to the class rema

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  13. Before displacement: studentification, campus-led gentrification and rental market transformation in a multiethnic neighborhood (Parc-Extension, Montréal)

    Violaine Jolivet, Chloé Reiser, Yan Baumann, et al. · 2022 · Urban Geography · 19 citations

    ABSTRACT This article explores a case of campus-led neighborhood change that weaves together an analysis of gentrification, studentification and displacement. Contributing to the understanding of displacement pressure, this empirical study employs a temporal perspective and an innovative mixed method that captures the shifting state of the rental market and the perceptions of neighborhood change as understood by immigrant and low-income residents of Parc-Extension. We analyze how studentification is promoted in a campus-led gentrification case study, showing how both gentrification and studentification participate in the rise of evictions and displacement pressures for long term residents. B

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  14. The embodiment of exclusionary displacement pressure: Intersections of housing insecurity and mental health in a Hispanic/Latinx immigrant neighborhood.

    Marisa Westbrook · 2024 · Social science & medicine · 13 citations

    Gentrification, growing income inequality, urban development, and the affordable housing crisis necessitate understanding the impact of the concern of displacement on health - prior to or even in the absence of a displacement event. In this paper, I use the term "exclusionary displacement pressure" to unify the literature on exclusionary displacement and displacement pressure, highlighting the disproportionate and inequitable impacts of displacement pressure among communities of color. Through following 35 residents over 2.5-years (2019-2022) in one predominantly low-income Hispanic/Latinx immigrant neighborhood in Denver, Colorado, I examine how exclusionary displacement pressure shapes the

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  15. What is wrong with gentrification-related displacement?

    B. van Leeuwen · 2024 · Progress in Human Geography · 12 citations

    Recently a number of theorists argue that physical displacement as a result of gentrification ought to be morally rejected on the basis of the principle of personal autonomy: displacement violates the option to exercise “place-based” or “located life-plans.” What is adversely violated is the neighborhood as a spatial background condition for the ability to realize embedded pursuits. I argue that this attempt to morally value social attachments to a particular place as means (or resources) to realize plans, is unconvincing and subject to moral risk because it instrumentalizes social attachments instead of recognizing their intrinsic significance for those concerned. The paper provides an alte

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  16. Neighborhood gentrification, displacement, and severe maternal morbidity in California

    Xing Gao, Timothy A. Thomas, R. Morello-Frosch, et al. · 2023 · Social science & medicine (1982) · 6 citations

    Gentrification, a racialized and profit-driven process in which historically disinvested neighborhoods experience an influx of development that contributes to the improvement of physical amenities, increasing housing costs, and the dispossession and displacement of existing communities, may influence the risk of severe maternal morbidity (SMM). Leveraging a racially diverse population-based sample of all live hospital births in California between 2006 and 2017, we examined associations between neighborhood-level gentrification and SMM. SMM was defined as having one of 21 procedures and diagnoses, as described in the SMM index developed by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. We compar

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  17. The regeneration path not taken further: An experiment in urban densification and state entrepreneurialism in a resettlement neighborhood in Suzhou, China

    Paola Pellegrini, Jin-Liu Chen · 2025 · Urban Studies · 6 citations

    Urban densification and its implications remain underexplored in China, especially regarding the regeneration of urban decaying areas. This study contributes to the discourse by investigating densification as a strategic urban regeneration tool in China’s state–market development, focusing on one of the most common forms of residential areas in post-reform urbanization, the resettlement neighborhood. Integrating fieldwork, archival research, interviews, and media analysis, the study examines a pioneering densification in the transition of state-entrepreneurialism to a free market. Unlike Western cases, prompted by private interests, the local government leveraged densification to reconcile s

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  18. Faith-Driven Gentrification and Displacement in Education in Israeli Urban Neighborhoods

    Janet Cohen, Miriam Billig · 2021 · Education and Urban Society · 5 citations

    Community-based, Judaism-intensive action groups (Hebrew: Gar’inim Toraniim—GTs) are religiously motivated to settle in Israeli development towns, seeking to narrow social gaps through education. However, their influence has never been fully clarified. This study is grounded in the theory of educational gentrification and introduces the concept of Faith-Driven Gentrification. Until now research has lacked voice from local people forced to face the intervention of settlers driven by religion and their influence on urban school systems. The findings, based on institutional data and in-depth interviews, show that GTs alter the structure of educational systems and the dominant educational ethos.

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  21. Changing Scope of Gentrification in Seoul? Neighborhood Transformation and Displacement in Sangwangsimni and Changsin‐Sungin Industrial Clusters

    Blaž Križnik, Kon Kim · 2024 · The Developing Economies · 3 citations

    Gentrification and displacement used to be an integral part of neighborhood transformation in Seoul, contributing to its economic and urban growth. While direct displacement has recently declined, new forms of displacement are emerging. This study employs a qualitative, case‐oriented research approach to understand gentrification in Seoul by comparing neighborhood transformation and displacement in Sangwangsimni and Changsin‐Sungin industrial clusters. In Sangwangsimni, the property‐led urban redevelopment contributed to the direct displacement of residents. In contrast, Changsin‐Sungin residents were able to remain in place because of the state‐led urban regeneration. However, the latter re

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  22. Inplacement, not just displacement: Urban assemblages and neighborhood stability in the face of gentrification

    Nina C. Martin, Chris D. Poulos, Leiha Edmonds · 2026 · Carolina Digital Repository (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) · 1 citations

    In recent decades, residents and community organizations in the ethnically diverse neighborhood of Albany Park, on Chicago’s northwest side, have been resisting gentrification, emerging as one of the city’s most active neighborhoods in anti-displacement organizing and policy setting. We seek to understand how a multiplicity of actors, human and non-human, have coalesced to achieve a modicum of success in stalling, subverting, and overcoming gentrification and its attendant displacement of low-income residents. We draw on the work of urban assemblage theorists to build a temporal and spatial analysis, showing the complex assemblage of resistance actors, their experiences, and their narratives

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  23. Participatory gentrification: how participatory design mechanisms legitimize neighborhood change in Chinese urban regeneration

    Rui-Qi Peng · 2026 · Frontiers in Sustainable Cities · 1 citations

    Participatory Design is widely promoted as a democratic tool for empowering communities in urban regeneration. However, growing evidence suggests that participatory processes may reproduce existing hierarchies and contribute to exclusionary neighborhood change. This study advances the concept of participatory gentrification to explain how Participatory Design becomes implicated in gentrification not through direct displacement, but through procedural and epistemic filtering embedded in participatory practices. Drawing on 71 interviews across four community cases in Shanghai and Chengdu, supplemented by consumption landscape indicators, the analysis identifies nine filtering mechanisms operat

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  24. Beyond redlining: Gentrification, displacement, disadvantages, and exclusivity predict urban environmental and health inequities

    I. Ajibade, K. Moffett, Jason Maxfield, et al. · 2026 · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 1 citations

    Significance Historical injustices and racial devaluation have concentrated inequities and privileges in certain urban neighborhoods. Yet, these neighborhoods are not static but dynamic and have changed over time. A nuanced understanding of the changes is crucial for identifying environmental injustices today. This study uses widely available datasets to compare historical Homeowners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC) neighborhood classifications with contemporary patterns of socioeconomic exclusivity, gentrification, disadvantage, and displacement. By linking these spatial patterns to environmental amenities, development conditions, hazards, and health outcomes in Portland, Oregon, we reveal a more c

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