Chapter 01: Introduction

Chapter 1

Introduction

1.1 The Concept of Gentrification

The concept of “gentrification,” which can be traced back to sociologist Ruth Glass in 1964, was first used to define a complicated, but distinct pattern of social and spatial reshaping seen in urban areas of London in the 1960s (Yee, J. & Dennett, A., 2020). It related to the phenomenon that the emergence of new middleclass neighbourhoods were gradually displacing preexisting working-class community. Housing prices rose as a result of the redevelopment of aged residential buildings (Lees et al., 2008). As a means of neighbourhood transformation that usually seeks to pursue the aesthetic and lifestyle tastes of particular demographic classes (those at the top of the socio-economic pile) at the detriment of others (those at the bottom) (Slater, 2011), the core of gentrification’s divisive and politicised existence is systemically rooted in the stratifications caused by socioeconomic class (SES), ethnicity, and gender inequalities (Lees et al., 2008).

1.2 Index of Gentrification

In recent years, there have been further attempts to quantify and visualise the effect of gentrification in urban environment(Trigg, K., 2017). The Center for Community Innovation gathered a wealth of data on neighbourhood incomes, transportation, and utilities in the San Francisco Bay Area, but the findings are tainted by a slew of subjective decisions (Center for Community Innovation 2009). The Voorhees Center used a similar approach in 2014 to reflect Chicago’s socioeconomic transition between 1970 and 2010, generating an index score and a population typology for the neighbourhood (Voorhees Center 2014). Although the data was correlated in this case, the number of variables was limited, and the emphasis was mostly on demographic data.

London, like San Francisco and Chicago in North America, is often referred to as a “textbook” model of urban gentrification, and is frequently used as a case study area in gentrification studies. Although scholars have attempted to quantify gentrification, there is a lack of a standardised and universal method for assessing the phenomenon(Trigg, K., 2017). The thesis would use London as a test city for the study, as this is where Glass’ gentrification findings were first made and gave a basis for many other studies. In order to understand the effects of gentrification, an iterative approach is used and an experiment index of London census data derived from London datastore (https:// data.london.gov.uk/) is created with potential to use data available in all cities.

The index of indicators has been filtered based on the key hypotheses of gentrification. For two-time intervals(2001 and 2011), indicators(population, health, education, employment, ethnicity, income and housing) resulted in a comprehensive analysis to determine how a region has changed and if gentrification has happened.

D e p r iv a t io n

Income Deprivation Employment Deprivation Education, Skills and Training Deprivation Health Deprivation and Disability Crime Barriers to Housing and Services Living Environment Deprivation

The English Indices of Deprivation 2019 (IoD2019) Ministry of Housing Communities & Local Government 26 September 2019

G e n t r if ic a t io n

Population and demographics Household Place of birth Ethnicity Religion Car ownership Density and dwelling Tenure Dwelling type Income and economic activeness Occupation The National Statistics Socio-economic classification Work conditions Qualifications Travel to work House prices and sales Planning permissions Population churn

Unpacking the Nuances of London’s Neighbourhood Change & Gentrification Trajectories UCL CENTRE FOR ADVANCED SPATIAL ANALYSIS January 2020