The Externalities of Super-Gentrification

• In Event: 40821 - Community and Urban Sociology Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 6. Gentrification II

Abstract

While considerable attention has been paid to the geographic mobility of the global elite, the outsized resources of the wealthy impact the places where they touch down and park their capital, generating reverberations that extend beyond affluent enclaves. How does the emergence of affluent enclaves affect neighboring areas, particularly in an era of speculative capitalism and intensified gentrification? To address this question, this presentation applies the concept of spatial spillover to the phenomenon of super-gentrification (the further upscaling of already gentrified areas), bringing insights from sociology, geography, and economics into conversation. Super-gentrification entails a quantitatively and qualitatively distinct form of upscaling, in terms of the elite spaces it produces and entanglement with the financialization of housing and speculative luxury real estate development (Lees 2003); yet little attention has been paid to the externalities specific to super-gentrification. Given the rise of super-gentrification, a comprehensive understanding of socio-spatial upscaling warrants conceptualizing the spillover effect of super-gentrification and how it may be measured. How does super-gentrification impact proximate areas? What roles do the real estate industry, investors, local commerce, retail, and service enterprises, municipal entities, and affluent households play in the spillover of super-gentrification? How can we identify when and where this spillover effect is unfolding? This presentation uses a multi-methodological case study of super-gentrification in New York City combining spatial statistics and qualitative field research to identify the theoretical contours of the spillover effect of super-gentrification. By expanding the geographic scope of analysis of the spatialized socio-economic externalities of affluence, this presentation moves the discourse of wealth and place-making beyond the model of segregated islands of privilege (e.g., gated communities, NIMBYism). In an era of heightened speculative capitalism and locales with porous social and spatial boundaries such as New York City, this shift in focus is vital to understanding elite spatial dynamics.

Author

• Judith R. Halasz, SUNY-New Paltz