For the benefit of all? State-led gentrification in a contested city

Abstract

Gentrification is not only an economic process based on individual desires and decisions and independent of political goals, but also a process led or assisted by governments with economic development and national goals. In this work, we study a state-led ethno-gentrification in Acre, a contested city in the north of Israel. Looking beyond the neoliberal terminology of regeneration, we argue that in contested cities gentrification is an economic development policy often intertwined with national-demographic goals. Yet, while economic and national motivations and policies may reinforce one another, they also produce tensions among policy makers, gentrifiers and local residents. ‘State-led ethno-gentrification’ presents the complexity of the relationship between neoliberalism and nationalism in a contested city. Interviews conducted in Acre with policy makers, Jewish newcomers involved in the gentrification process and Arab residents present a complex picture of goals, interests and concerns, as well as contradictions and tensions.

Exploring the potential of SMEs to build individual, organizational, and community resilience through sustainability‐oriented business practices

“…The use of public space is at the center of many unresolved tensions, often between distinct actors seeking to shape or create value of common urban areas. The processes of gentrification, for instance, are nearly ubiquitous in cities worldwide, bringing many contested benefits between policymakers, investors, and long‐time local residents (Shmaryahu‐Yeshurun & Ben‐Porat, 2020). Strategic placemaking practices are essential to both instill responsibility for public areas and enable local coordination and allow participants to visualize change in an urban context (Frantzeskaki & Rok, 2018).…”

The role of schools in the de- and revalorization of stigmatized neighborhoods: The case of Berlin-Neukölln

“…I suggest that in the German context, the economic goals implied by gentrification (i.e. closing rent gaps and generating profit from housing and the built or unbuilt environment) cannot be disassociated from wider ideas about nationhood, multiculturalism and integration (Shmaryahu-Yeshurun & Ben-Porat, 2020;Van Eijk, 2010). Accordingly, fears about "nonintegrating" (Muslim) immigrants and their families drive and justify gentrification processes that lead to the displacement of these groups, serving intertwined economic and political ends.…”

Towards Urban Geopolitics of Encounter: Spatial Mixing in Contested Jerusalem

“…Increasing neoliberal exclusion in urban centres has led to new frontiers of social protest and contestation (Leitner, Peck, and Sheppard 2007). Recent studies have also emphasised the dynamic nature of neoliberal reconstruction and its localised manifestations in different urban localities (Peck, Theodore and Brenner 2013;Shmaryahu-Yeshurun & Ben-Porat 2020).…”