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North American Gentrification? Revanchist and Emancipatory Perspectives Explored

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  • Tom Slater

    (Centre for Urban Studies, School for Policy Studies, University of Bristol, 8 Priory Road, Bristol BS8 1TZ, England)

Abstract

By offering a response to recent calls for a ‘geography of gentrification’, the author attempts to move on from the intractable theoretical divisions and overgeneralizations that continue to pervade the gentrification literature. The research described in this paper takes the form of a comparative assessment of the gentrifying neighbourhoods of South Parkdale, Toronto, Canada, and Lower Park Slope, New York City, USA. A central part of this research has been an engagement with two contrasting academic discourses on gentrification, the ‘emancipatory city’ (a Canadian construct) and the ‘revanchist city’ (a US construct), to examine how gentrification may or may not have changed since these discourses were produced and articulated. The author combines narratives from in-depth interviews (with a particular focus on displaced tenants) with supplementary data from secondary sources and demonstrates that gentrification is neither emancipatory nor revanchist in either case. This has important implications for how gentrification is understood and evaluated in Canada and the USA. Although one can see crucial broad similarities both in the causes and in the effects of gentrification in each neighbourhood (which would appear to endorse casual references to ‘North American gentrification’), the process is also differentiated according to contextual factors, and the nuances of the gentrification process are illuminated and clarified by international comparison. In sum, the author points to the need to exercise caution in referring to ‘North American gentrification’, especially as a geography of gentrification is only in its infancy.

Suggested Citation

  • Tom Slater, 2004. "North American Gentrification? Revanchist and Emancipatory Perspectives Explored," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 36(7), pages 1191-1213, July.
  • Handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:36:y:2004:i:7:p:1191-1213
    DOI: 10.1068/a368
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Roger Keil, 2000. "Governance Restructuring in Los Angeles and Toronto: Amalgamation or Secession?," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(4), pages 758-781, December.
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    Cited by:

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    2. Nur Bahar Sakizlioglu & Justus Uitermark, 2014. "The Symbolic Politics of Gentrification: The Restructuring of Stigmatized Neighborhoods in Amsterdam and Istanbul," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 46(6), pages 1369-1385, June.
    3. Justus Uitermark & Jan Willem Duyvendak & Reinout Kleinhans, 2007. "Gentrification as a Governmental Strategy: Social Control and Social Cohesion in Hoogvliet, Rotterdam," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 39(1), pages 125-141, January.
    4. Aysegul Can, 2018. "Book review: Gentrifier," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 55(9), pages 2075-2078, July.
    5. Matthias Bernt, 2012. "The ‘Double Movements’ of Neighbourhood Change: Gentrification and Public Policy in Harlem and Prenzlauer Berg," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 49(14), pages 3045-3062, November.
    6. Claire Bynner, 2019. "Intergroup relations in a super-diverse neighbourhood: The dynamics of population composition, context and community," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 56(2), pages 335-351, February.
    7. Geoffrey De Verteuil, 2011. "Evidence of Gentrification-induced Displacement among Social Services in London and Los Angeles," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 48(8), pages 1563-1580, June.
    8. Rachel G McKane & David J Hess, 2022. "Ridesourcing and urban inequality in Chicago: Connecting mobility disparities to unequal development, gentrification, and displacement," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 54(3), pages 572-592, May.
    9. Lance Freeman, 2008. "Comment on ‘The Eviction of Critical Perspectives from Gentrification Research’," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(1), pages 186-191, March.
    10. Trina Hamilton & Winifred Curran, 2013. "From “Five Angry Women†to “Kick-ass Community†: Gentrification and Environmental Activism in Brooklyn and Beyond," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 50(8), pages 1557-1574, June.
    11. Kevin Ward & Colette Fagan & Linda McDowell & Diane Perrons & Kathryn Ray, 2010. "Class Transformation and Work-Life Balance in Urban Britain: The Case of Manchester," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 47(11), pages 2259-2278, October.
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    13. Mathieu Van Criekingen, 2009. "Moving In/Out of Brussels' Historical Core in the Early 2000s: Migration and the Effects of Gentrification," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 46(4), pages 825-848, April.
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    15. Bereitschaft, Bradley, 2020. "Gentrification and the evolution of commuting behavior within America's urban cores, 2000–2015," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    16. Henrik Gutzon Larsen & Anders Lund Hansen, 2008. "Gentrification—Gentle or Traumatic? Urban Renewal Policies and Socioeconomic Transformations in Copenhagen," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 45(12), pages 2429-2448, November.
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    19. Lance Freeman, 2009. "Neighbourhood Diversity, Metropolitan Segregation and Gentrification: What Are the Links in the US?," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 46(10), pages 2079-2101, September.
    20. Peter K. Mackie & Rosemary D.F. Bromley & Alison M.B. Brown, 2014. "Informal Traders and the Battlegrounds of Revanchism in Cusco, Peru," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(5), pages 1884-1903, September.
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    23. Sue-Ching Jou & Eric Clark & Hsiao-Wei Chen, 2016. "Gentrification and revanchist urbanism in Taipei?," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 53(3), pages 560-576, February.

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