Istanbul, Turkey, Kentsel dönüşüm, May, 2014. Wikicommons/ Nevit Dilman. Some rights reserved.The rapid gentrification of urban landscapes under neoliberalism is a controversial issue across the globe. Scholars have described the transformation of cities in favor of middle- and upper-class use in contexts as diverse as New York, Mumbai and Johannesburg.
Many of these studies point to the ways in which gentrification pushes lower-income populations out of their neighborhoods, whether through rising rents, forceful eviction or – in some parts of the world – even dispossession. Others, however, have argued that some forms of gentrification turn into a win-win situation in which the original residents actually benefit from the influx of better-off residents. In this context, Georgetown University Professor Peter Byrne has, among others, argued that despite the undeniably harmful effects of gentrification for some households, “increases in the number of affluent and well-educated residents is plainly good for cities, on balance, by increasing the number of residents who can pay taxes, purchase local goods and services, and support the city in state and federal political processes.”
The idea of gentrification as a redistributive policy response is increasingly shared and promoted in policy circles, pointing out the relation between gentrification and a healthy (class and ethnic) social mixing in cities.
