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The notion of gentrification refers to the “in-migration of middle- and upper-income households into existing lower-income urban neighbourhoods” (Griffith “Gentrification: Perspectives on the Return to the Central City”, 1996), which raises property values and often displaces low-income families and small businesses.
The term “gentrification” was coined by the British urban geographer Ruth Glass (1964) to describe, at the time, the new practice of upper-middle-class households purchasing properties in the traditionally deprived East End of London. According to Glass's analysis, the influx of wealthy newcomers had a significant impact on the neighbourhoods they moved into. As these individuals purchased properties and converted them from renter-occupied to owner-occupied, the demand for housing increased, causing property values to rise. However, this sudden increase in property values had a negative consequence for the working-class residents who had previously lived in the area. Many of these individuals were forced to leave their homes due to the high cost of living, leading to displacement and a loss of community.
Gentrification has become controversial because, historically, it has come with a significant component of discrimination against racial minorities, women and children, the poor, and older adults. In the United States, gentrification is often associated with the process of racial demographic change in inner cities. Mostly White, higher social class individuals move into formerly disinvested areas inhabited by ethnic and racial minorities. That is why sometimes gentrification is referred to as “a new form of colonisation”.
According to Rowland Atkinson (2004), gentrification is a complex and contradictory process that brings both positive and negative consequences. The negative effects include loss of affordable housing, increased costs and changes to local services, loss of social diversity, resentment and conflicts within communities, higher levels of crime and homelessness. However, gentrification can also have some positive effects, such as the rehabilitation of deteriorated housing in neighbourhoods, stabilization of declining areas, increased property values, augmented local fiscal revenues, and encouragement for further development.
Urban theorist Phillip L. Clay (1979) identified four stages in the process of gentrification. The first stage, known as the "pioneers" stage, involves bohemians and artists moving to run-down or abandoned areas in search of affordable rent. In the second stage, the middle classes follow suit. During the third stage, the original population is displaced by the increasing numbers of middle-class residents. The fourth and final stage sees the neighbourhood fully taken over by banks, developers and the wealthy. However, journalist Peter Moskowitz, in his book "How to Kill a City" (2017), suggests a fifth stage where multimillion-dollar condos are built and sold to shell corporations, presumably owned by foreign billionaires, and often left vacant.
Artists are often seen as the initiators of gentrification. The common narrative is that artists and artistic businesses move to neglected neighbourhoods attracted by the affordability, authenticity, and low-cost functionality of declining historical and industrial buildings. By renovating and repurposing these old buildings, they set the stage for gentrification. When artists and arts organizations make these neighbourhoods their homes, they establish a "bohemian" atmosphere and create new economic value through small-scale artistic businesses and neighbourhood amenities such as bars and cafes. As a result, higher-income groups are drawn to these neighbourhoods with an abundance of spaces for cultural consumption, driving up rents, creating social tensions, and potentially displacing long-time residents and businesses, including artists.
However, recent research has demonstrated that artistic activities can contribute to the revitalization of neighbourhoods without causing displacement and can actually benefit existing residents (Markusen & Gadwa, 2010). In fact, that the opposite of gentrification often occurs: artists, artistic organizations, and artistic businesses tend to locate themselves in areas where gentrification has already taken place and where their potential patrons live and work (Murdoch et al., 2016). (P. C.)