Toward a Theory of Gentrification A Back to the City Movement by Capital, not People

Bibliographic Data

ID23313985
AuthorsN T Smith (0000-0002-2142-3841, corresponding author), Neil Smith (0000-0002-2598-9965)
Year1979
Volume45
Issue4
Pages538-548
Publication date1979-10-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of the American Planning Association (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0194-4363 • E-ISSN: 1939-0130
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/01944367908977002
OpenAlexW2091400955
LanguageEN
Citations received935
References cited14

Consumer sovereignty hypotheses dominate explanations of gentrification but data on the number of suburbanites returning to the city casts doubt on this hypothesis. In fact, gentrification is an expected product of the relatively unhampered operation of the land and housing markets. The economic depreciation of capital invested in nineteenth century inner-city neighborhoods and the simultaneous rise in potential ground rent levels produces the possibility of profitable redevelopment. Although the very apparent social characteristics of deteriorated neighborhoods would discourage redevelopment, the hidden economic characteristics may well be favorable. Whether gentrification is a fundamental restructuring of urban space depends not on where new inhabitants come from but on how much productive capital returns to the area from the suburbs.

Capital (architecture) · Capital formation · Depreciation (economics) · Economic geography · Economic growth · Economics · Economy · Financial capital · Gentrification · Geography · Human capital · Market economy · Political science · Redevelopment · Restructuring · Space (punctuation) · Finance · Housing Market and Economics · Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism · Law · Urban Planning and Governance

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub