Spoiled Mixture: Where Does State-led `Positive' Gentrification End?

Abstract

Over the past decade, policy-makers have introduced social mixing initiatives that have sought to address urban social problems by deconcentrating poor and workingclass communities through attracting the middle classes back to the city. Such a policy objective clearly 'smells like gentrifi cation'. However, some commentators have warned against being critical of these policies, pointing out that the types of innercity redevelopment generated by them is different from classical gentrifi cation and that state-led gentrifi cation offers benefi ts for many working-class communities. This paper draws upon research conducted in London to demonstrate how, despite having many commendable aspects, these policy agendas carry with them signifi cant threats of displacement for lower-income communities. The paper also argues that, due to the mutating nature of gentrifi cation, these threats are increasingly context-bound. In conclusion, the paper argues that those state mechanisms which might manage the unjust aspects of gentrifi cation are inadequate.Whether gentrifi cation is urban, suburban, or rural, new-build or the renovation of existing stock, it refers, as its gentri-suffi xes attest, to nothing more or less than the class dimensions of neighbourhood change-in short, not simply changes in the housing stock, but changes in housing class (Slater et al., 2004(Slater et al., , p. 1144.

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

“…Davidson (2008Davidson ( , 2009a, however, has elaborated on our earlier fi ndings, providing detailed empirical evidence to further substantiate our claims. He has produced qualitative evidence of population change and of the various forms of indirect displacement: economic, political, and service/commercial.…”

“…(4) Displacement pressure: this is the dispossession suffered by low income groups during the gentrifi cation of their neighbourhoods. Davidson (2008Davidson ( , 2009a, 2 focusing specifi cally on new-build gentrifi cation, draws on and adds to Marcuse's schema; the displacement happening is not the simple 'eviction and rent hike' displacement that is common to the literature and part of Boddy's arguments; it is much more nuanced than that. Boddy (2007) simplifi es and under-theorises displacement.…”

Gentrificación en España y América Latina: Un diálogo crítico

“…La primera situación descrita se refi ere a los debates acerca de las "políticas neoliberales de gentrifi cación", que reconocen el papel fundamental que desempeña el Estado en impulsar los procesos de gentrifi cación (Hackworth, 2002;Smith, 2002;Lees, 2008), un aspecto que también se discute bajo el título de gentrifi cación "impulsada por el Estado" o Cuadro Nº 3 Perspectivas comparativas sobre los discursos de gentrifi cación en España, América Latina y los discursos anglófonos convencionales "basada en las políticas públicas" (Davidson, 2008;Rousseau, 2009). Estas políticas, desplegadas por las diferentes Administraciones Públicas, se pueden considerar como pauta habitual, como parte de una activa implementación de políticas neoliberales de gentrifi cación y como un medio para requerir la ciudad para los negocios, la clase media y las fuerzas del mercado en general (Peck, 2006: 681).…”

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“…The privatization/commodification or class appropriation of educational and recreational services often associated with gentrification should also have been highlighted: Education is touched on in one article but there is no overall discussion of "neighborhood resource displacement" (Davidson 2008(Davidson , p. 2399, the implications of which for the social reproduction of inequality have been underlined in recent scholarship on the "indirect displacement" notably associated with new-build gentrification and gentrification via planned social mix (Cheshire 2009).…”