GlobalGentrifications2015-coverimageGlobal Gentrifications: Uneven Development and Displacement, a co-edited volume that I’ve been working on with Loretta Lees (University of Leicester) and Ernesto Lopez-Morales (University of Chile, Santiago), is finally out now! The initial starting of this project was the support from the Urban Studies Foundation and the Urban Studies journal for a seminar series on Towards an Emerging Geography of Gentrification in the Global South, which took place in London and Santiago de Chile in 2012. Some of the contributors to this volume were from the seminar series, but many others kindly made contributions along the way to this exciting project. To acquire the book, please visit the publisher’s page here.

About the book:

Under contemporary capitalism the extraction of value from the built environment has escalated, working in tandem with other urban processes to lay the foundations for the exploitative processes of gentrification world-wide. Global gentrifications: Uneven development and displacement critically assesses and tests the meaning and significance of gentrification in places outside the ‘usual suspects’ of the Global North. Informed by a rich array of case studies from cities in Asia, Latin America, Africa, Southern Europe, and beyond, the book (re)discovers the important generalities and geographical specificities associated with the uneven process of gentrification globally. It highlights intensifying global struggles over urban space and underlines gentrification as a growing and important battleground in the contemporary world. The book will be of value to students and academics, policy makers, planners and community organisations.

Endorsement:

“The political economy of inequality and poverty is foundational for understanding cities everywhere. This wonderfully curated volume on gentrification does this to illuminate urban realities of the global south.” Susan Parnell, African Centre for Cities, University of Cape Town

“This magnificent collection of gentrification studies interrogates this classic western-derived concept at an unprecedentedly global scale.The book profoundly extends the scope of gentrification research and reinvigorates the notion from the perspective of comparative urbanism.” Fulong Wu, Bartlett Professor of Planning UCL

“This remarkable book, edited with clarity of vision and political purpose, is sensitive to the ‘new comparative urbanism’ whilst arguing that to ‘unlearn’ how we theorise gentrification would be highly questionable. The circulation of capital and the dominance of speculative landed developer interests in cities is leading to massive displacement and social suffering, and this timely volume reminds us that these issues should be at the forefront of our inquiries.” Tom Slater, University of Edinburgh