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Artists, Aestheticisation and the Field of Gentrification

Author

Listed:
  • David Ley

    (Department of Geography, University of British Columbia, 217 1984 West Mall, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6T IZ2, Canada, dley@geog.ubc.ca.)

Abstract

Gentrification involves the transition of inner-city neighbourhoods from a status of relative poverty and limited property investment to a state of commodification and reinvestment. This paper reconsiders the role of artists as agents, and aestheticisation as a process, in contributing to gentrification, an argument illustrated with empirical data from Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. Because some poverty neighbourhoods may be candidates for occupation by artists, who value their afford ability and mundane, off-centre status, the study also considers the movement of districts from a position of high cultural capital and low economic capital to a position of steadily rising economic capital. The paper makes extensive use of Bourdieu's conceptualisation of the field of cultural production, including his discussion of the uneasy relations of economic and cultural capitals, the power of the aesthetic disposition to valorise the mundane and the appropriation of cultural capital by market forces. Bourdieu's thinking is extended to the field of gentrification in an account that interprets the enhanced valuation of cultural capital since the 1960s, encouraging spatial proximity by other professionals to the inner-city habitus of the artist. This approach offers some reconciliation to theoretical debates in the gentrification literature about the roles of structure and agency and economic and cultural explanations. It also casts a more critical historical perspective on current writing lauding the rise of the cultural economy and the creative city.

Suggested Citation

  • David Ley, 2003. "Artists, Aestheticisation and the Field of Gentrification," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 40(12), pages 2527-2544, November.
  • Handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:40:y:2003:i:12:p:2527-2544
    DOI: 10.1080/0042098032000136192
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    Cited by:

    1. Lauren Andres & Oleg Golubchikov, 2016. "The Limits to Artist-Led Regeneration: Creative Brownfields in the Cities of High Culture," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(4), pages 757-775, July.
    2. Sandra Huning & Nina Schuster, 2015. "‘Social Mixing' or ‘Gentrification'? Contradictory Perspectives on Urban Change in the Berlin District of Neukölln," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(4), pages 738-755, July.
    3. Charlie Karlsson, 2011. "Clusters, Networks and Creativity," Chapters, in: David Emanuel Andersson & Åke E. Andersson & Charlotta Mellander (ed.), Handbook of Creative Cities, chapter 5, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    4. Lyons, Kate & Rodriguez, Itxaso, 2017. "Quantifying the Linguistic Landscape: A Study of Spanish-English Variation in Pilsen, Chicago," SocArXiv 4f5mk, Center for Open Science.
    5. Doris Sommer & Pier Luigi Sacco, 2019. "Optimism of the Will. Antonio Gramsci Takes in Max Weber," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-31, January.
    6. Meghan Ashlin Rich & William Tsitsos, 2016. "Avoiding the ‘SoHo Effect’ in Baltimore: Neighborhood Revitalization and Arts and Entertainment Districts," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(4), pages 736-756, July.
    7. R. Alan Walks, 2010. "Naked City: The Death and Life of Authentic Urban Places," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(5), pages 659-661.
    8. Nathan Marom, 2014. "Relating a City's History and Geography with Bourdieu: One Hundred Years of Spatial Distinction in Tel Aviv," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(4), pages 1344-1362, July.
    9. Vanessa Mathews, 2014. "Incoherence and Tension in Culture-Led Redevelopment," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(3), pages 1019-1036, May.
    10. Andrea Robbett, 2016. "Community dynamics in the lab," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 46(3), pages 543-568, March.
    11. IOVINO, Giorgia, 2017. "Waterfront Urbani: Approcci Rigenerativi e Visioni di Città," CELPE Discussion Papers 148, CELPE - CEnter for Labor and Political Economics, University of Salerno, Italy.
    12. Brian Doucet, 2014. "A Process of Change and a Changing Process: Introduction to the Special Issue on Contemporary Gentrification," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 105(2), pages 125-139, April.
    13. Justine Lindemann, 2019. "Gardens and Green Spaces: placemaking and Black entrepreneurialism in Cleveland, Ohio," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 36(4), pages 867-878, December.
    14. David J. Madden, 2014. "Neighborhood as Spatial Project: Making the Urban Order on the Downtown Brooklyn Waterfront," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(2), pages 471-497, March.
    15. Schuetz, Jenny, 2014. "Do art galleries stimulate redevelopment?," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 59-72.
    16. Harvey Molotch & Mark Treskon, 2009. "Changing Art: SoHo, Chelsea and the Dynamic Geography of Galleries in New York City," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(2), pages 517-541, June.
    17. Stefano Bloch, 2016. "Why do Graffiti Writers Write on Murals? The Birth, Life, and Slow Death of Freeway Murals in Los Angeles," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(2), pages 451-471, March.

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