Assessing green gentrification in historically disenfranchised neighborhoods: a longitudinal and spatial analysis of Barcelona

Abstract

To date, little is known about the extent to which the creation of municipal green spaces over an entire city addresses social or racial inequalities in the distribution of environmental amenities or whether such an agenda creates contributes to green gentrification. In this study, we evaluate the effects of creating 18 green spaces in socially vulnerable neighborhoods of Barcelona during the 1990s and early 2000s. We examined the evolution over time of six socio-demographic gentrification indicators in the areas close to green spaces in comparison with the entire districts. Our results indicate that new parks in the old town and formerly industrialized neighborhoods seem to have experienced green gentrification. In contrast, most economically depressed areas and working-class neighborhoods with less desirable housing stock and more isolated from the city center gained vulnerable residents as they became greener, indicating a possible redistribution and greater concentration of vulnerable residents through the city.

Not Simply Green: Nature-Based Solutions as a Concept and Practical Approach for Sustainability Studies and Planning Agendas in Cities

“…Recently, much research has addressed the process of making older urban areas inhabited by the lower-income population more livable and attractive with greening projects. The resulting processes have been termed ecological-, green-, environmental-, or eco-gentrification [40][41][42][43].…”

Climate gentrification: from theory to empiricism in Miami-Dade County, Florida

“…Therefore, any tax consequences associated with the investments would be absorbed by increases in property valuation and/or rent payers. This pathway is a derivative of the well-developed concept of 'Green Gentrification,' wherein investments in sustainability amenities and infrastructure are unevenly distributed or otherwise associated with gentrification (Checker 2011, Curran and Hamilton 2012, Bryson 2013, Sandberg 2014, Curran and Hamilton 2017, Gould and Lewis 2017, Anguelovski et al 2018. Although not widely studied, the exemplar case for this pathway is the St. Kjeld Climate District in Copenhagen where a broader resilience strategy to revitalize a neighborhood led to some displacement from increased rents (Kjaer 2015) and the marginalization of existing homeowners (Baron and Petersen 2016).…”

Ecological Gentrification in Response to Apocalyptic Narratives of Climate Change: The Production of an Immuno‐political Fantasy

“…This form of gentrification appears in the literature with a variety of names: ‘ecological gentrification’ (Dooling, ; ), ‘eco‐gentrification’ (Cucca, ; Rice et al ., ), ‘green gentrification’ (Gould and Lewis, ; Anguelovski et al ., ; Anguelovski et al ., ), ‘environmental gentrification’ (Checker, ; Curran and Hamilton, ; Pearsall, ; Sandberg, ) and ‘(low‐)carbon gentrification’ (Bouzarovski et al ., ; Rice et al ., ). Whatever name is used, the process is generally defined by ‘new or intensified urban socio‐spatial inequities produced by urban greening agendas and interventions, such as greenways, parks, community gardens, ecological corridors, or green infrastructure’ (Anguelovski et al ., : 1‐2).…”