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The changing state of gentrification

2001/11/01 by Jason Hackworth, Neil Smith · 821 citations
Economics, Econometrics and Finance · Social Sciences · #Cultural Industries and Urban Development #Devolution (biology) #Economic growth #Economics #Economy #Finance #Gentrification #Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism #Intervention (counseling) #Law #Local government #Political economy #Political science #Politics #Public administration #Redevelopment #Restructuring #Revenue #Sociology #State (computer science) #Urban Planning and Governance

paper · doi:10.1111/1467-9663.00172

published in Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie 92(4), 464-477 (Wiley)

openalex publication_date 2001/11/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/25

Abstract

Gentrification has changed in ways that are related to larger economic and political restructuring. Among these changes is the return of heavy state intervention in the process. This paper explores heightened state involvement in gentrification by examining the process in three New York City neighbourhoods: Clinton, Long Island City, and DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass). We argue that state intervention has returned for three key reasons. First, continued devolution of federal states has placed even more pressure on local states to actively pursue redevelopment and gentrification as ways of generating tax revenue. Second, the diffusion of gentrification into more remote portions of the urban landscape poses profit risks that are beyond the capacity of individual capitalists to manage. Third, the larger shift towards post–Keynesian governance has unhinged the state from the project of social reproduction and as such, measures to protect the working class are more easily contested.

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