Displacement, Space and Dwelling: Placing Gentrification Debate

Abstract

This paper is concerned with the conceptualisations of space which underlie debate of gentrification-related displacement. Using Derrida's concept of the spatial metaphor, the paper illuminates the Cartesian understandings of space that act as architecture for displacement debate. The paper corrects this through arguing that the philosophy of Heidegger and Lefebvre better serves to understand displacement. Emphasising the topology of Heidegger's Dasein and, following Elden, relating this to Lefebvre's understanding of space, the paper 'constructs' displacement in a way that avoids the abstraction of displacement-as-out-migration and instead emphasises the lived experience of space.

New‐build gentrification: its histories, trajectories, and critical geographies

“…You know, this place is unrecognisable, just a few remnants like us around'. A once strong socio-spatial bond, integral to the subject's being (Davidson, 2009b), had therefore been dissolved through a classbased process of neighbourhood change.…”

“…In order to comprehend this complex set of processes, we must move beyond population data and highly symbolic rent hikes and forced evictions. Indeed, this is a necessary step if we are to understand displacement's social signifi cance (see Davidson, 2009b).…”

“…The point here then is that displacement is much more than the moment of spatial dislocation. To reduce displacement to that moment is to strip meaning from lived space (Davidson, 2009b). To dismiss the phenomenological basis of Figure 3.…”

“…For as Tuan (1977: 3) claimed: 'place is security, space is freedom: we are attached to one and long for the other'. Hartman's (1984) 'right to stay put' requires extension to 'the right to (make) place; the right to dwell' (Davidson, 2009b).…”

Losing One’s Place: Narratives of Neighbourhood Change, Market Injustice and Symbolic Displacement

“…Newman and Wyly 2006;Slater 2009;Smith 2008). This article is intended as a contribution to such debates, and as a spur to further thinking about the experience of displacement -focusing both on the loss of home and on the complex feelings of alienation and estrangement to place many feel, even while still struggling to maintain a foothold in their neighbourhoods (Davidson 2009). These related forms of displacement are given life through in-depth qualitative data generated from interviews conducted in Australia's two largest metropolitan centres, primarily through the voices of private renters.…”