Commercial Gentrification in Post‐Industrial Neighbourhoods: A Dynamic View From an Entrepreneur’s Perspective

Liu

2022

Front. Environ. Sci.

Within the Anglo-American literature, commercial, along with residential, gentrification has often been treated as an attendant neighborhood phenomenon. This study aims to uncover the distribution of areas for emerging consumption that indicate the occurrence of commercial gentrification, as well as to explain the development process and spatial correlations of commercial gentrification in Chengdu, a large Chinese city. With the data of points of interest (POIs), the study categorizes new retail places for commercial gentrification and conducts spatial and statistical analyses. The following findings are revealed: First, the distribution of new retail places changed from a monocentric to a polycentric structure in the main urban areas of Chengdu from 2010 to 2020, wherein high-density areas were partially overlapped with traditional commercial centers. Second, commercial gentrification in Chengdu was presented by the fastest growth of the entertainment services in the 2010s. Third, commercial gentrification in Chengdu shifted from a centripetal to a centrifugal development pattern from 2010 to 2020. The geographies of development were variegated, connected with multiple location attributes and impacted by local governments’ urban development strategies. Fourth, commercial gentrification was positively correlated with the growth of knowledge-intensive industries but negatively related to the change in both traditionally secondary and tertiary sectors in the past decade. Finally, changes in housing prices showed no connection with commercial gentrification during the studied period. The study suggests that commercial gentrification should be treated as a phenomenon of industrial gentrification, independent of residential gentrification. The commercial spatial planning in the city should play close attention to the synergic and exclusive relations between new retail industries and the evolution of industrial spaces in the emerging post-industrial city economy.

Section: Emerging Consumption Commercial Gentrification and Urban Changementioning

confidence: 99%

Commercial gentrification in China and its distribution, development, and correlates: The case of Chengdu

Liu

2022

Front. Environ. Sci.

“…This perspective seems promising due to the new developments in gentrification theory. More precisely, gentrification scholars have recently disentangled commercial gentrification from its 'classical' residential archetype (Kosta, 2019;Parker, 2018;Pastak et al, 2019;Tuttle, 2020;Zukin and Kosta, 2004). Put briefly, residential and commercial facets of gentrification are no longer considered axiomatically parallel to each other, so they might take place independently in different urban areas and transform them under different logics.…”

Section: Towards Commercial Studentification?mentioning

confidence: 99%

The student urban leisure sector: Towards commercial studentification?

Zasina

2021

Local Economy

The case study of the student urban leisure sector in Lodz, Poland, presented in this paper encourages the reader to look at cities through the lens of the expansion of consumerism and higher education. While the mainstream of the literature dealing with students as an urban population covers accommodation issues, this paper focuses on the development of the leisure economy. To these ends, it looks at students as customers and workers of the leisure venues. The paper shows that in these venues, students are not just sizeable groups of customers but also employees. Therefore, the central areas of Lodz do not function solely as student playscapes but also as students’ places of work. Moreover, in contrast to the insights from prior studentification research, in which students were frequently reported as unwanted neighbours, in the eyes of leisure providers in Lodz, students are often kind customers and hard-working employees. Therefore, this paper argues for the nuanced treatment of students in research on cities by including a broader spectrum of roles students have as actors of urban change. The paper ends with a methodological standpoint that research into students in cities may benefit from applying the perspective of commercial studentification.

Int J Urban Regional Res

“…Third, recent studies have documented changes in retail and leisure and have also examined how new restaurants, bars and shops are created according to the tastes of middle‐class incomers (Zukin et al ., 2009; Ernst and Doucet, 2014; Pastak et al ., 2019). These studies focus particularly on the feelings of residents faced with these new landscapes of consumption and leisure and the de‐familiarization of social life in public spaces.…”

Section: Symbolic Displacement and Place‐making Practices In Neighbourhoods Undergoing Gentrificationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Therefore, where there is the potential for new‐build housing as ‘in‐fills’ in gentrified areas, it will most likely be used. In many post‐Soviet cities there is also a large stock of vacant industrial sites available for redevelopment (Holm et al ., 2015; Pastak et al ., 2019). Boddy (2007) describes the ‘rent gap' between the value of existing premises for commercial, retail or warehouse use and their value when converted for residential use.…”

Section: Symbolic Displacement and Place‐making Practices In Neighbourhoods Undergoing Gentrificationmentioning

confidence: 99%

SYMBOLIC DISPLACEMENT REVISITED: Place‐making Narratives in Gentrifying Neighbourhoods of Tallinn

Pastak¹,

Kährik²

2021

Self Cite

Recent studies from Central and Eastern Europe have documented a weak link between gentrification and physical displacement, and have questioned whether the concept of gentrification can be applied to the post‐Soviet context. The lack of evidence found for physical (direct) displacement has been explained mainly through the rapid intergenerational social mobility of groups with lower social status and high rates of home‐ownership due to privatization. However, in many Eastern European post‐industrial inner‐city neighbourhoods significant residential and commercial changes are visible, among them, an inflow of younger residents with higher socio‐economic status, the closure of traditional shops and opening of fashionable new cafés and restaurants, together with a revival of community life. The current article revisits the debate on whether it is possible to extend the Anglo‐American concept of gentrification to post‐socialist contexts. More specifically, it tests whether, and under what conditions, the diverse displacement mechanisms identified provide an explanation for the social and cultural homogenization of post‐industrial post‐Soviet neighbourhoods. By studying the local place‐making narratives used in three neighbourhoods in Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, we argue that the contradictory place‐making trajectories of new and old residents can lead to symbolic (rather than direct or physical) displacement pressures and consequently to the process of ‘un‐homing’. The latter process is combined with a loss of neighbourhood identity shaped primarily by life‐course and generational differences, but also by socio‐economic standing.