Vancouver

Gentrification and social inclusion/exclusion

7:00pm
Thursday April 4 2013

From the SFU Urban Studies program: a series on gentrification.

Gentrification is typically associated with change in inner city housing markets. The goal of this speaker series is to advance some wider perspectives on gentrification, recognizing that housing change is only one aspect of this broader social and economic process.

Gentrification and social inclusion/exclusion
Loretta Lees, Professor of Human Geography, Department of Geography, King’s College London, UK
RSVP: http://www.sfu.ca/reserve

This paper discusses the displacement of low income populations in inner London due to state-led gentrification. State-led gentrification is occurring through the large scale demolition and ‘urban regeneration’ of council estates in inner London, a process sold to the public through mixed communities policy. This ‘new urban renewal’ (Hyra, 2008) is leading to the social cleansing of the final gentrification frontiers in inner London. Some disturbing stories of C21st state ‘Rachmanism’ are revealed by those forced to leave their homes. This state-led gentrification is in the process of being further escalated by the Coalition government’s benefit caps. Prof. Lees argues that if these processes continue London will end up being the ‘embarras de richesses’ that Ruth Glass (1964) predicted.