International Journal of Urban and Regional Research

DOI:10.1111/j.1468-2427.2008.00768.x

DEBATES AND DEVELOPMENTS

Debate on Gentrification

The Debates and Developments section of the journal attempts to create a space for
provocation, critical reflection, heuristic propositions and initial reports on the use of new
methodologies. As part of this effort, the section will offer debates centered on articles
published in the journal that have prompted controversy, conceptual breakthroughs and
strong opinion among its readership.
Tom Slater’s ‘The eviction of critical perspectives from gentrification research’,
published in the December 2006 issue, is a particularly salient piece with which to
initiate these debates. Given the longstanding ambiguities surrounding notions of
gentrification in their application to urban change — in terms of understanding what they
exactly include and point to, it has been incumbent upon research in this area to operate
within a critical intersection of structural, policy and sociocultural discourses. As
gentrification shifts across pejorative, technical, political and policy connotations, it is
important to understand how this concept operates in specific contexts and for whose
interests.
Slater has issued an incisive challenge: not only have critical perspectives been
increasingly absent from gentrification research but this research acts to obscure
important political and economic transitions at work in cities. He argues that there is
something fundamentally problematic in the engagement of research with processes of
urban change; in so doing, he raises important conceptual and methodological questions.
We have invited five prominent urban researchers to respond to this article and the
challenges raised. What follows are the brief reflections of Chris Allen, Lance Freeman,
Kate Shaw, Neil Smith, Löic Wacquant, and Paul Watt, as well as a rejoinder from Tom
Slater.

AbdouMaliq Simone
Editor, Debates and Developments

© 2008 The Author. Journal Compilation © 2008 Joint Editors and Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Published by Blackwell
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