Policy Press
One Introduction: gentrification, social mix/ing and mixed communities
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Loretta Lees
Abstract
This chapter discusses the international scope and increasing prominence of social mix policies that enact processes of gentrification worldwide. It argues that the literatures on social mix and on gentrification, have, until now, existed as parallel discourses, and that there is an urgent need to read them together. The introduction begins by discussing the history of social mix policy and rhetoric, and by assessing, given the recent focus on social capital, if/how the meaning of social mixing has changed over recent decades and if we now have different expectations of what might constitute a socially mixed community. It moves on to look at the proliferation of gentrification and social mix in different national contexts. The countries that the chapter discusses represent the spectrum of policy contexts in which social mix is an explicit policy intervention, one viewed as welfare enhancing (Canada), through to different levels of policy intervention that seek to steer market processes towards mix (European cases), through to more marketized interventions (the USA and Australia). Then turning to the gentrification literature, the chapter discusses the evidence about whether social mix is but a transitory phenomenon on the way to complete gentrification (social homogeneity). It considers whether gentrifiers are more predisposed towards social mixing than other members of the middle class. And finally turning to the social mix literature, the chapter considers what the adequate threshold of social interaction might be to justify an area being regarded as socially mixed. And importantly, it questions whether the aspirations of social mix policy sit well with the lived realities of daily conduct by different social groups.
Abstract
This chapter discusses the international scope and increasing prominence of social mix policies that enact processes of gentrification worldwide. It argues that the literatures on social mix and on gentrification, have, until now, existed as parallel discourses, and that there is an urgent need to read them together. The introduction begins by discussing the history of social mix policy and rhetoric, and by assessing, given the recent focus on social capital, if/how the meaning of social mixing has changed over recent decades and if we now have different expectations of what might constitute a socially mixed community. It moves on to look at the proliferation of gentrification and social mix in different national contexts. The countries that the chapter discusses represent the spectrum of policy contexts in which social mix is an explicit policy intervention, one viewed as welfare enhancing (Canada), through to different levels of policy intervention that seek to steer market processes towards mix (European cases), through to more marketized interventions (the USA and Australia). Then turning to the gentrification literature, the chapter discusses the evidence about whether social mix is but a transitory phenomenon on the way to complete gentrification (social homogeneity). It considers whether gentrifiers are more predisposed towards social mixing than other members of the middle class. And finally turning to the social mix literature, the chapter considers what the adequate threshold of social interaction might be to justify an area being regarded as socially mixed. And importantly, it questions whether the aspirations of social mix policy sit well with the lived realities of daily conduct by different social groups.
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents iii
- List of tables, figures and photographs v
- Acknowledgements vii
- Notes on contributors viii
- Introduction: gentrification, social mix/ing and mixed communities 1
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Reflections on social mix policy
- Why do birds of a feather flock together? Social mix and social welfare: a quantitative appraisal 17
- Social mix and urban policy 25
- Mixed communities and urban policy: reflections from the UK 35
- Gentrification without social mixing in the rapidly urbanising world of Australasia 43
-
Social mix in liberal and neoliberal times
- Social mixing and the historical geography of gentrification 53
- Social mix and encounter capacity – a pragmatic social model for a new downtown: the example of HafenCity Hamburg 69
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Social mix policies and gentrification
- Mixed-income schools and housing policy in Chicago: a critical examination of the gentrification/education/‘racial’ exclusion nexus 95
- Social mix as the aim of a controlled gentrification process: the example of the Goutte d’Or district in Paris 115
- Beware the Trojan horse: social mix constructions in Melbourne 133
-
The rhetoric and reality of social mix policies
- Social mixing as a cure for negative neighbourhood effects: evidence-based policy or urban myth? 151
- Meanings, politics and realities of social mix and gentrification – a view from Brussels 169
- ‘Regeneration’ in interesting times: a story of privatisation and gentrification in a peripheral Scottish city 185
- HOPE VI: calling for modesty in its claims 209
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Experiencing social mix
- The impossibility of gentrification and social mixing 233
- Not the only power in town? Challenging binaries and bringing the working class into gentrification research 251
- From social mix to political marginalisation? The redevelopment of Toronto’s public housing and the dilution of tenant organisational power 273
- Mixture without mating: partial gentrification in the case of Rotterdam, the Netherlands 299
- Afterword 319
- References 323
- Index 365
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents iii
- List of tables, figures and photographs v
- Acknowledgements vii
- Notes on contributors viii
- Introduction: gentrification, social mix/ing and mixed communities 1
-
Reflections on social mix policy
- Why do birds of a feather flock together? Social mix and social welfare: a quantitative appraisal 17
- Social mix and urban policy 25
- Mixed communities and urban policy: reflections from the UK 35
- Gentrification without social mixing in the rapidly urbanising world of Australasia 43
-
Social mix in liberal and neoliberal times
- Social mixing and the historical geography of gentrification 53
- Social mix and encounter capacity – a pragmatic social model for a new downtown: the example of HafenCity Hamburg 69
-
Social mix policies and gentrification
- Mixed-income schools and housing policy in Chicago: a critical examination of the gentrification/education/‘racial’ exclusion nexus 95
- Social mix as the aim of a controlled gentrification process: the example of the Goutte d’Or district in Paris 115
- Beware the Trojan horse: social mix constructions in Melbourne 133
-
The rhetoric and reality of social mix policies
- Social mixing as a cure for negative neighbourhood effects: evidence-based policy or urban myth? 151
- Meanings, politics and realities of social mix and gentrification – a view from Brussels 169
- ‘Regeneration’ in interesting times: a story of privatisation and gentrification in a peripheral Scottish city 185
- HOPE VI: calling for modesty in its claims 209
-
Experiencing social mix
- The impossibility of gentrification and social mixing 233
- Not the only power in town? Challenging binaries and bringing the working class into gentrification research 251
- From social mix to political marginalisation? The redevelopment of Toronto’s public housing and the dilution of tenant organisational power 273
- Mixture without mating: partial gentrification in the case of Rotterdam, the Netherlands 299
- Afterword 319
- References 323
- Index 365
