[2020] Transnational gentrification: The crossroads of transnational mobility and urban research

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This introduction to the special issue introduces the contributors’ articles and identifies key themes relating to how increased transnational mobility has affected urbanisation processes in many cities, resulting in the globalisation of rent gaps. A mix of local and transnational real estate interests work to attract higher-income lifestyle migrants and tourists, often from higher-income countries to lower-income urban space in order to increase its exchange value. In the process, however, they act to reduce the use value of urban space to lower-income residents. The introduction notes that the acceleration of lifestyle mobilities moving through urban spaces, and the development of transnational lifestyles of urban place consumption, have produced new forms of gentrification – not merely the spread of an urban strategy to new cities, but the planetarisation of rent gaps. Transnational gentrification is the form of contemporary urbanisation that occurs as a result of closing these rent gaps through attraction of higher income, transnational migrants, often from high-income countries in Northern Europe and North America.

@article{doi:10.1177/0042098020945247,
author = {Matthew Hayes and Hila Zaban},
title ={Transnational gentrification: The crossroads of transnational mobility and urban research},
journal = {Urban Studies},
volume = {57},
number = {15},
pages = {3009-3024},
year = {2020},
doi = {10.1177/0042098020945247},
URL = {https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098020945247},
eprint = {https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098020945247}
}

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0042098020945247

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Shared by @CorujaTejedora in FRP-32: Socioeconomic effects of cryptocurrency redistribution in the Costa Rican rural town of Tinamastes

Statement: The authors demonstrate ways in which urban research and mobility studies can help us further understand the complexities of the transnational gentrification phenomenon.

Description: Through a literature analysis, Hayes and Zaban (2020) walk us through the different lenses of study of transnational gentrification (T.G.) identifying new developments such as: T.G. of heritage sites, T.G. of smaller cities, North-South T.G., T.G. and displacement, T.G. and collaboration, T.G. as a tool for mobility for middle class citizens of high-income countries.

Comments: While this article covers a large range of lenses to understand T.G., Hayes and Zaban keep a critical eye to developing ways of neocolonialism present in T.G.: rising rent gaps, displacement, appropriation, transformation of local lifestyles and landscapes.

Evaluations: In regards to our research, this article identifies the interconnection between: mobility of middle class foreigners and displacement of local communities is key, as well as, the welcoming/collaboration of locals to T.G. Furthermore, it pinpoints the blurred lines between expats, migrants and tourists in tourism locations.

Key Words: Transnational gentrification, transnational mobility, neocolonial appropriation, Airbnbisation, Tourism Gentrification

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