IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/urbstu/v46y2009i13p2731-2747.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

In Quest of the Good Urban Life: Socio-spatial Dynamics and Residential Building Stock Transformation in Zurich

Author

Listed:
  • Martina Koll-Schretzenmayr

    (Netzwerk Stadt und Landschaft, ETH Zurich, ETH Hoenggerberg, Zurich, CH-8093, Switzerland, Schretzenmayr@nsl.ethz.ch)

  • Frank Ritterhoff

    (TU Berlin, Institut für Soziologie, D-10587 Berlin, Germany, frank.ritterhoff@tu-berlin.de)

  • Walter Siebel

    (Institut für Soziologie, Carl von Ossietzky Universität, Oldenburg, Germany, walter.siebel@uni-oldenburg.de)

Abstract

This paper discusses socio-spatial dynamics and the transformation of the residential building stock in the global city of Zurich. It deals with five questions. Does Zurich exhibit the type of social polarisation outlined by the global city hypothesis? If so, how does social polarisation become visible in the context of a European city? Which actors in the real estate market are catering to the special tastes of the new urban middle class? With whom does the new middle class compete for space in the city? The paper argues that real estate developers customise the residential building stock and produce residential units for a targeted market—the new urban middle class. Furthermore, a new socio-spatial phenomenon—ennoblement—has evolved, as the new urban middle class takes residence in traditional upper-class neighbourhoods. By investing its own economic capital, this new middle class is hoping to profit from upper-class social and cultural capital.

Suggested Citation

  • Martina Koll-Schretzenmayr & Frank Ritterhoff & Walter Siebel, 2009. "In Quest of the Good Urban Life: Socio-spatial Dynamics and Residential Building Stock Transformation in Zurich," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 46(13), pages 2731-2747, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:46:y:2009:i:13:p:2731-2747
    DOI: 10.1177/0042098009345536
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0042098009345536
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0042098009345536?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. X. Zhang & R. Kanbur, 2001. "What Difference Do Polarisation Measures Make? An Application to China," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(3), pages 85-98.
    2. John Friedmann, 1986. "The World City Hypothesis," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 17(1), pages 69-83, January.
    3. Chris Hamnett, 1994. "Social Polarisation in Global Cities: Theory and Evidence," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 31(3), pages 401-424, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Renato A. Orozco Pereira & Ben Derudder, 2010. "Determinants of Dynamics in the World City Network, 2000-2004," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 47(9), pages 1949-1967, August.
    2. Zwiers, Merle & Kleinhans, Reinout & van Ham, Maarten, 2015. "Divided Cities: Increasing Socio-Spatial Polarization within Large Cities in the Netherlands," IZA Discussion Papers 8882, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Neumann, Uwe & Schaffner, Sandra & Eilers, Lea, 2019. "Bedeutung finanzieller Grundkompetenzen aus regionaler Perspektive. Gefördert durch die Dr. Josef und Brigitte Pauli-Stiftung," RWI Projektberichte, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, number 222358.
    4. Thomas Maloutas & Hugo Botton, 2021. "Trends of Social Polarisation and Segregation in Athens (1991–2011)," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 9(2), pages 117-128.
    5. Flüchter, Winfried, 1997. "Tôkyô quo vadis? Chancen und Grenzen (?) metropolitanen Wachstums," Working Papers on East Asian Studies 15/1997, University of Duisburg-Essen, Institute of East Asian Studies IN-EAST.
    6. Kurt Geppert, 1996. "Ballungsräume in den USA - anhaltende Reurbanisation?," Vierteljahrshefte zur Wirtschaftsforschung / Quarterly Journal of Economic Research, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research, vol. 65(2), pages 156-171.
    7. Chris Hamnett, 2021. "The changing social structure of global cities: Professionalisation, proletarianisation or polarisation," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 58(5), pages 1050-1066, April.
    8. Ayda Eraydin, 2008. "The Impact of Globalisation on Different Social Groups: Competitiveness, Social Cohesion and Spatial Segregation in Istanbul," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 45(8), pages 1663-1691, July.
    9. Scott Baum, 1997. "Sydney, Australia: A Global City? Testing the Social Polarisation Thesis," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 34(11), pages 1881-1902, November.
    10. Po‐Fen Tai, 2010. "Beyond ‘Social Polarization’? A Test for Asian World Cities in Developmental States," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(4), pages 743-761, December.
    11. Stephen W. K. Chiu & Tai-lok Lui, 2004. "Testing the Global City-Social Polarisation Thesis: Hong Kong since the 1990s," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 41(10), pages 1863-1888, September.
    12. Michele Acuto, 2011. "Finding the Global City," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 48(14), pages 2953-2973, November.
    13. Chakravarty, Dwarka & Goerzen, Anthony & Musteen, Martina & Ahsan, Mujtaba, 2021. "Global cities: A multi-disciplinary review and research agenda," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 56(3).
    14. Herman L. Boschken, 2008. "A Multiple-perspectives Construct of the American Global City," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 45(1), pages 3-28, January.
    15. Fabio Lamanna & Maxime Lenormand & María Henar Salas-Olmedo & Gustavo Romanillos & Bruno Gonçalves & José J Ramasco, 2018. "Immigrant community integration in world cities," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(3), pages 1-19, March.
    16. Merle Zwiers & Ferry Koster, 2015. "The local structure of the welfare state: Uneven effects of social spending on poverty within countries," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 52(1), pages 87-102, January.
    17. Jeroen van der Waal & Jack Burgers, 2011. "Post-Industrialisation, Job Opportunities and Ethnocentrism," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 48(4), pages 681-697, March.
    18. Po-Fen Tai, 2013. "Gender Matters in Social Polarisation: Comparing Singapore, Hong Kong and Taipei," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 50(6), pages 1148-1164, May.
    19. R. Alan Walks, 2001. "The Social Ecology of the Post-Fordist/Global City? Economic Restructuring and Socio-spatial Polarisation in the Toronto Urban Region," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 38(3), pages 407-447, March.
    20. Grzegorczyk Anna, 2021. "Residential segregation and socio-spatial processes in Marseille. Urban social sustainability challenge," Bulletin of Geography. Socio-economic Series, Sciendo, vol. 52(52), pages 25-38, June.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:46:y:2009:i:13:p:2731-2747. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.gla.ac.uk/departments/urbanstudiesjournal .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.