Neighbourhood Diversity, Metropolitan Segregation and Gentrification: What Are the Links in the US?

In: Urban studies, Volume 46, Issue 10, p. 2079-2101

Abstract

An important yet little understood aspect of gentrification is the extent to which it affects spatial relations between various social groups. This study employs two measures of gentrification to discern how it is related to neighbourhood-level diversity and metropolitan-level segregation in the US by race and class respectively. It is found that gentrification does not decrease neighbourhood-level diversity. The evidence on whether gentrification precedes increased levels of neighbourhood-level diversity is more mixed. Depending on the outcome and the metric of gentrification used, there are some instances where gentrification appears to lead to increased diversity. However, there are other instances where gentrifying neighbourhoods start out more diverse than other neighbourhoods and remain that way over the study period. The relationship between metropolitan-level segregation and gentrification is more tenuous, with some of the evidence suggesting that gentrification reduces income segregation and weaker less robust evidence suggesting gentrification increases racial segregation.