When British sociologist Ruth Glass coined the term ‘gentrification’ in 1964 she intended to outline a methodical description of neighborhood shifts in working-class districts of London. Her use of a derivative term associated with the historically mobile and wealthy ‘gentry’ described how formerly middling districts became popular as housing stock and property values improved and increased respectively.
As social shifts in urban neighborhoods continued to be expressed as gentrification, the term expanded and became a never-ending identifier of everything new and different. Places that are simply rehabbed by the same class of people, new parks, vacant land developed for the first time and even sites newly valuable because of transportation shits all receive attention.
In Philadelphia the term is used often to describe places where social patterns are the opposite of what Glass encountered. Large universities buying land and redeveloping surrounding neighborhoods are making investments in their community. Usually the people living in the community are similar to the folks living in the same territory previously.
Immigrants and working-class families are reshaping parts of the city because their target districts are more affordable than alternative residential neighborhoods and they are displacing nobody.
This paper will showcase images and people choosing to living in rapidly shifting zones across Philadelphia that are being charged with gentrifying places underutilized for years. Those saddled with the term are baffled and amused. Gentrification has shifted to include natural and simple processes in every urban area. It is time to resurrect gentrification and return to its roots while questioning the validity and necessity of the term.
In a small part of 1964 London Ms. Glass witnessed a trend worth chronicling. When applied worldwide to every major urban area; places that have shifted dramatically in popularity due to numerous factors, the concept does not make sense.
About the presenterJake Sudderth
Jake Sudderth is the Research Director of CTC (City Town County) Urban Studies. He develops plans and surveys predicting future growth in urban neighborhoods. He is the author of one book and numerous articles specific to urban history. Previous work included teaching American History and American Studies