Metropolitics

When Measurement Matters: Displacement, Gentrification, Residential Mobility

H. Jacob Carlson — 2020-04-14T05:00:00Z

Scholarly studies of displacement resulting from gentrification are inconsistent in what they measure, and omit mechanisms of displacement.
Gentrification is a concern in communities across the country. As previously low-income neighborhoods see an influx of more affluent households, they are accompanied by rising rents, changing demographics, and a reshaping of the economic and cultural landscape. The preexisting residents see these changes in their community and worry that they and their

- Essays / gentrification, displacement, New York, residential mobility, housing, replacement

Who Stays and Who Leaves? Residential Flows in French Shrinking Cities

Mathilde Rudolph — 2017-11-01T06:00:00Z

In focusing on residential flows, Mathilde Rudolph seeks to shed light on the processes of urban decline at play in France. She emphasizes how these flows are socially selected and ultimately entrench differences in social composition between shrinking cities and growing cities, as executives appear to avoid shrinking cities while manual workers are more prone to stay.
---- Series: Shrinking Cities With the growing literature on the subject of shrinking cities, it has become easier to gain a

- From the Field / France, residential mobility, deindustrialization, blue-collar workers, manual workers, shrinking cities, urban decline, urban shrinkage, degrowth, shrinkage, executives

The reconstruction of Beirut: sowing the seeds for future conflicts?

Bruno Marot & Serge Yazigi & translated by Oliver Waine — 2012-11-14T10:59:43Z

Periods of post-war reconstruction are often the backdrop for new socio-economic and political dynamics. In Beirut, the rise of market-led urbanism, a lack of proper urban planning and the far-reaching sectarian polarisation are all factors that could raise questions about the model of urban regeneration implemented and arouse new socio-political tensions.
“Beirut in times of peace has been more disfigured and destroyed than in times of war.” While the city centre, devastated by the combats

- From the Field / gentrification, developers, governance, urban renewal, residential mobility, reconstruction, Lebanon, Beirut, conflict, urban regeneration, demolition

Marne-la-Vallée: from new town to true town?

Laurent Cailly & translated by Oliver Waine — 2012-10-31T05:55:00Z

The redefinition of relations between a city's centre and its outskirts is often described as the rise of a metropolitan condition. Nathalie Brevet, who has studied the lifestyles of residents of Marne-la-Vallée new town, on the eastern outskirts of Paris, instead highlights the weakening of these residents' metropolitan dimension in favour of local ties.
Forty years after their designation, have the five new towns in the Paris region become real towns, as hoped by their creator, Paul

- Reviews / housing, urban planning, residential mobility, mobility, living area, new town, metropolis, Marne-la-Vallée

Is rising home ownership bad for employment?

Jean Bosvieux & Bernard Coloos & translated by Oliver Waine — 2011-11-09T06:00:00Z

Homeowners everywhere are less mobile than tenants. However, does home ownership have a negative effect on employment? This hypothesis forms the basis of policy recommendations recently formulated by a number of bodies, despite the fact that it is far from proven – indeed, it would appear to be refuted by existing studies.
All studies into residential mobility – whether in France or other industrialised countries – show that, all other things being equal, owner-occupiers tend to move home

- Debates / homeownership, housing, residential mobility, mobility, employment

“Ghetto,” “Banishment,” “Neighborhood Effects.” A Critique of the “Ghetto” Image of French Housing Projects

Pierre Gilbert & translated by Eric Rosencrantz — 2011-03-23T06:30:00Z

Are residents of French housing projects really “banished” to their neighborhoods and kept in “confinement” there? Does living there have nothing but adverse effects on their integration into society? Pierre Gilbert argues that empirical studies to date fall far short of bearing out this portrayal of French housing projects as “ghettos”. And yet this very “ghetto” image has served as the basis for the overhaul of urban policy over the past decade and the ensuing urban renewal program in France.

- Essays / ghetto, segregation, housing projects, working-class neighborhoods, urban policy, urban renewal, residential mobility, social diversity, social housing, housing estates, neighborhood effects