Dear Colleagues,
We'd like to call your attention to the RN37 conference and to our
session about similarities and differences between gentrification
cases.
The deadline for abstract submission is 6th of May, but hopefully the
deadline will be extended.
See the details below.
Best regards,
Gergely Olt and Adrienne Csizmady
RN37 V MIDTERM CONFERENCE Seeing Like a City / Seeing the City Through
Georg Simmel Center for Metropolitan Research Humboldt University
Berlin OCT 5-7, 2022
Abstract proposals to be submitted by May 6, 2022 through the
following link: https://forms.gle/kiymngod1MBzfRKi7
(Deadline extension is expected.)
Session #26 Similarities and differences between gentrification cases:
do contexts, states and institutions matter?
Chairs Gergely Olt (Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest,
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Adrienne Csizmady (Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest,
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Panel format Traditional (with individual presentations)
Conference stream Urban In/Equalities
Summary
Gentrification is considered as a ubiquitous phenomenon explained by
the same universal laws of urban land rent dynamics under global
capitalism everywhere (Smith, 2002). However, this approach was
criticised lately by highlighting the necessary contextual factors
when these laws actually apply, and that it cannot deal with parallel
similarities and differences of gentrification cases (Bernt, 2016).
The assumption of neoliberal state and urban policies behind
gentrification was also questioned, and different adjectives and
prefixes were added to the word neoliberalism (such as radical,
authoritarian and post-) altering its meaning fundamentally.
To progress this debate, we invite theoretical and empirical papers to
our session situated in the Urban in/equalities stream related but not
exclusive to the following issues.
Empirical research shows that, besides the general affordability
crisis of urban housing, the extent of this problem, and the political
reactions to it are varied (even within Western- Europe, see
Christophers, 2021). In many cases around the world (for example in
Southern-Europe) demand created by tourism and expats is considered
more central in the process than elsewhere. In cities under
transformation (for example in Eastern-Europe) privatisation policies,
distribution of external funding (i.e. EU funds) and illiberal
politics influence the process.
Different political and institutional contexts show variation in how
informality can appear in housing opportunities of residents and how
political power uses informality (i.e. corruption, clientelism,
disrespect of civil rights and/or private property, etc.) in urban
interventions. Informal state practices also influence the
opportunities, means and results of political struggles against
gentrification.
However, are these assumptions and descriptions about differences
superficial and “created”? Why are they created? Do they matter at all
theoretically? Can we find disinvestment-reinvestment cycles and/or
neoliberalism as the context of gentrification in every case? Are
there other factors at play?
What influences housing strategies of states, local authorities,
housing providers, individual landlords and residents?
Do informal state practices affect gentrification and urban investments?
On what depends the extent of gentrification? Is taming gentrification
possible? When and why are large international investors involved?
When not?
What are the forms and results of resistance against gentrification in
different contexts?
References Bernt M. (2016) Very particular, or rather universal?
Gentrification through the lenses of Ghertner and López-Morales. City,
20:4, 637-644, DOI: 10.1080/13604813.2016.1143682.
Christophers (2021) Mind the rent gap: Blackstone, housing investment
and the reordering of urban rent surfaces. Urban Studies
https://doi.org/10.1177/00420980211026466.
Smith N. (2002), New Globalism, New Urbanism: Gentrification as Global
Urban Strategy. Antipode, 34: 427-450.
https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8330.00249.
Chelcea L., Popescu R., Cristea D. (2015): Who Are the Gentrifiers and
How Do They Change Central City Neighbourhoods? Privatization,
Commodification, and Gentrification in Bucharest. Geografie, 120, No.
2, pp. 113–133.
Sequera J., Nofre J. (2018) Shaken, not stirred: New debates on
touristification and the limits of gentrification. City 22(5–6):
843–855.
Kusiak J. (2019) Legal Technologies of Primitive Accumulation:
Judicial Robbery and Dispossession‐by‐Restitution in Warsaw, IJURR,
43, pp. 649–665. DOI:10.1111/1468- 2427.12827.
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