Re-placing displacement in gentrification studies: temporality and multi-dimensionality in rural gentrification displacement

Abstract

This paper explores how conceptions of displacement have been challenged and adapted as the study of gentrification has expanded to encompass a series of new contexts, including post-industrial conversions and new-build urban developments within and beyond the Global North. Attention is draw to Peter Marcuse's work on displacement, and how some of his conceptualisations of different forms of displacement have been significant in cross-contextual discussions of gentrification, although other aspects of his work, such as his discussions of the relationship between abandonment and displacement have received less attention. Drawing on work of Marcuse, the earlier work of George and Eustice Grier, and a series of more contemporary studies, the paper argues for the adoption of more multi-dimensional and temporally sensitive conceptualisations of gentrification displacement. It then seeks to illustrate the value of this conceptualisation in the study of a further context of gentrification, namely the study of rural gentrification. The paper highlights recent debates over the significance of displacement, and thereby gentrification, to the study of demographic change in rural areas of the UK. Attention is drawn to studies that have made reference to displacement impacts of rural gentrification, before drawing on research conducted by the authors in nine villages located in six districts of England. The paper highlights evidence of 'disinvestment displacement' occurring prior to the major onset of gentrification in these villages, through 'reinvestment displacement' and 'direct displacement' at the point of gentrification, 'chain displacement' occurring both before and after the point of property gentrification, and 'exclusionary displacement', and material and experiential 'displacement pressures', operating once gentrification had started to take hold in these locations. Displacement is further shown to involve not only housing but also employment conditions, access to services, and the symbolism, practices and affective relations that people have with human and more-than-human constituents of space.