Dr. Andrej Holm
Humboldt-University Berlin
“Wir Bleiben Alle!“
Gentrification as New Urban Mainstream
Structures and Conflicts of Urban
Redevelopment in Berlin
What is Gentrification?
London, 1964
“Larger Victorian houses, downgraded in an earlier or recent period--which
were used as lodging houses or were otherwise in multiple occupation--have
been upgraded once again. (…) Once this process of “gentrification” starts in a
district it goes on rapidly until all or most of the original working-class occupiers
are displaced and the whole social character of the district is changed.“
(Glass 1964)
What is Gentrification?
Gentrification is...
 Physical upgrading of housing stock
 Economically increase of value
 Displacement and new composition of social structure
 Forced by political and administrative decisions
 Cultural re-evaluation of neighbourhood
... a multidimensional process
Gentrification und Stadtpolitik
The Concept of gentrification is politically contested
„Precisely because the language of gentrification tells the truth
about the class shift involved in the ‘regeneration’ of the city, it has
become a dirty word to developers, politicians and financiers.“
(Neil Smith 2002)
Gentrification and Displacement
… concluding all this economic strategies of valorisation
and political programs of upgrading, which based on a
displacement of current user as precondition of its success
“Displacement is the core and not a unintended by-effect of
gentrification” (Marcuse 1990).
Displacement
Different types of displacement
(following Peter Marcuse)
 Physical Displacement (directly forced by the owner)
 Economic displacement (rising rents)
 Cultural displacement pressure (effects of alienation)
 Exclusionary displacement
Fragestellungen
Model of Gentrification-Process
+++ pioneer gentrification +++ Investment +++ displacement +++ succession ++
Explaining Gentrifcation
Why, where und when did gentrification occurs?
 Sociological Explanations
(changing working conditions, new lifestyles, demography)
 Economical Explanations
(Second cycles of capital, rent-rap-theory)
 (Urban) Political Explanations
(forcing and slowing instruments of regulation)
Modification
Gentrification as Urban Mainstream
 Expanding Demands
(ongoing trend to flexibilisation of work, shift to knowledge based
economies)
 Rising Pressure of Investment
(financial market activities, investment in to ‘concret-gold’,
financialisation of real estate economy)
 Policies of Gentrification
(contest between cities, entrepreneurial city orientation, revanchist
urban policies)
Modification
Gentrification as Urban Mainstream
Mutations and Modification
Agents / Actors
“students gentrification” (Smith 2005, Leeds)
“touristification” (Gotham 2005, New Orleans)
“family gentrification” (Karstens 2001, Amsterdam)
Spatial focus
“new build gentrification” (Davidson/Lees 2003)
“rural gentrification” (Dutton 2005, UK)
“brownfield gentrification” (Cameron 2003, UK)
Modes of Investment
“super gentrification” (Butler/Lees 2006, USA/UK)
“rental gentrification” (Van Crieckingen 2010, Brussels)
Modifications
Gentrification as Urban Mainstream
(Re)Definition of Gentrification
1.
Reinvestment of capital
2.
Social upgrading by influx
3.
Changing urban landscapes
4.
Direct or indirect displacement
(Mark Davidson / Loretta Lees 2005: 1170)
Gentrification in Berlin
Geography and Progress of Gentrification
Gentrification in Berlin
Prenzlauer Berg 1993-2008
1. Reinvestment of Capital
2. Social Upgrading
3. Changing Landscapes
4. Displacement
• growing
Change
Share
80 % of
changing
landscapes
of
academics
80 % ownership
of tenants
twice
of consumption
up to 60%
for LOHAS (Lifestyle on Health and
• Closing
75 % income
(high
level)
modernisation,
Local
of
Housing
index
market
raised from
for poor
70 to
Sustainability)
140
% transformed
of Berlins average
• people
30 %
from rental
 Openingunits
of private
financed schools
into condos
 Rising
High rate
cultural
of self-employments
dissonance
(40%)
 NIMBY-Campaigns
Gentrification in Berlin
Mitte / Prenzauer Berg since 2005
1. Reinvestment of Capital
2. Social Upgrading
3. Changing Landscapes
4. Displacement
Highly
Professional
exclusive
of the
Managerial
access
offClass
• Enclaves
50 % condos
atbetter
new
constructions
(PMC) from Culture, Economy,
• Reducing
27 Luxury
Estates
(1.200
WE)
social
distinctive
the
relative
architecture
share
of
Politics
housing
• affordable
Average price:
3.700 Euro/qm
 semi-gated
Internationalcommunities
Elites (EU/USA)
 Upgrading of housing value and
windfall gains
Gentrification in Berlin
Kreuzberg since 2005
1. Reinvestment of Capital
2. Social Upgrading
3. Changing Landscapes
4. Displacement
• Small
Housing-Supply
Higher
Changing
scale
income
ownership
spatial
households
as polarisation
socially
/ rising
moving
closed
inhouse
shop
(20 %)
prices
 Concentration of club culture
Concentration
of international
• Rising
Single
locations
LuxuryofEstate
costs
housing
Projects
(40%)
investors
• Housing
Touristification
provision
High rents
in new (83%)
contracts
Gentrification in Berlin
Nord-Neukölln seit 2005
1. Reinvestment of Capital
2. Social Upgrading
3. Changing Landscapes
4. Displacement
• Opening
Closing
Rising
Changing
influx
market
new
ownership
ofsub-cultural
students
for new(2009:
contracts
and
locations
young
16%)
academics
(80
new location)
Decreasingdisplacement
number of empty
• Economical
by
(from
10%
tocreative
than
5%)
flats
Rising
New
modernisation
brand
share
asof
aless
“hypermobile
place
class”for new contracts
• creative
Rising rents
 Protest against administrative
renewal-programs
Gentrification in Berlin
One Trend – Many Faces
 sub cultural enclaves by symbolic gentrification
 political initiated gentrification (urban renewal zones)
 new-build-projects with effects on surrounding areas
 mobility-chain-displacement
Gentrification in Berlin
Gentrification as Urban Mainstream
Challanges
… for Gentrification-Research
•
spatial aspects
•
economic dimension
•
social effects
„New Metropolitan
„Commodification
„Urban
Enclavism“of
Mainstream“
Urbanity“
 Embedding
Analysis
of of
highly
analysis
fragmented
of capitalization
strategies
ofintoofa
Integration
neighborhood-research
ground-rents
appropriation,
with
using
dynamics
and creation
of the of space
city-wide perspective
international financial market
 Stronger sensibility on class, gender, milieu Analysis
ofUrban-Value-Coalitions
circular
of Gentrification
Analyzing
specific
social
costsmodes
of gentrification
(travelling of hotspot, displacement by
 Understanding
Integration
of the
conflicts
new modes
inofsocial
economy
and cultural
mobility, re-gentrification
stillofgentrified
into
contested
gentrification-research
neighborhoods
areas)
Dr. Andrej Holm, Humboldt University Berlin
a.holm@sowi.hu-berlin.de
www.gentrificationblog.de