Planetary Gentrification

This is the first book in Polity's new 'Urban Futures' series.

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, proclamations rang out that gentrification had gone global. But what do we mean by 'gentrification' today? How can we compare 'gentrification' in New York and London with that in Shanghai, Johannesburg, Mumbai and Rio de Janeiro? This book argues that gentrification is one of the most significant and socially unjust processes affecting cities worldwide today, and one that demands renewed critical assessment.

Drawing on the 'new' comparative urbanism and writings on planetary urbanization, the authors undertake a much-needed transurban analysis underpinned by a critical political economy approach. Looking beyond the usual gentrification suspects in Europe and North America to non-Western cases, from slum gentrification to mega-displacement, they show that gentrification has unfolded at a planetary scale, but it has not assumed a North to South or West to East trajectory ? the story is much more complex than that.
 
Rich with empirical detail, yet wide-ranging, Planetary Gentrification unhinges, unsettles and provincializes Western notions of urban development. It will be invaluable to students and scholars interested in the future of cities and the production of a truly global urban studies, and equally importantly to all those committed to social justice in cities.

Loretta Lees is Professor of Human Geography at the University of Leicester.

Hyun Bang Shin is Associate Professor of Geography and Urban Studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Ernesto López-Morales is Associate Professor of Urban Planning at the University of Chile.

Acknowledgements vii

1. Introduction 1

2. New Urbanizations 24

3. New Economics 53

4. Global Gentrifiers: Class, Capital, State 83

5. A Global Gentrification Blueprint? 111

6. Slum Gentrification 140

7. Mega-Gentrification and Displacement 171

8. Conclusion 201

References 227

Index 256