Gentrification

Abstract

Gentrification is an intra-urban migration process under which households with high socioeconomic status move into parts of a city formerly occupied by households of low socioeconomic status. According to the Free Dictionary, gentrification’s route word (“gentry”) refers to “people of gentle birth, good breeding, or high social position.” With gentrifying neighborhoods often located in central cities, where the poor are usually concentrated in the United States and some European countries, the phenomenon is commonly viewed as a path toward revitalization of ailing downtown areas. This view makes gentrification a popular subject for newspaper articles, and the anecdotal evidence they provide has been supplemented by data-driven scholarly research documenting and analyzing the phenomenon (for recent examples, see Vigdor 2002; Ellen and O’Regan 2011; McKinnish et al. 2010).