GENTRIFICATION IN NEW-YORK, LONDON AND PARIS - AN INTERNATIONAL COMPARISON

In this paper we look at gentrification at a transnational level, studying the process in three of the largest cities which have been affected, New York, London and Paris. We compare the context of gentrification in three neighbourhoods, Park Slope in Brooklyn, New York City, Barnsbury in north London, and the Marais in central Paris. The aim is to show how certain processes are prerequisites for gentrification, whilst others are locality-specific, aiding gentrification, but not strictly necessary. We consider seven significant issues: suburbanization, institutional disinvestment, abandonment, the turning point from disinvestment to reinvestment, the reinvestors, institutional financial assistance and the conspicuous consumption landscapes associated with the process. These issues are investigated, and we argue that cross-national generalizations about gentrification are complicated by contextual situations specific to the nation, and indeed the city and neighbourhood, concerned.