Defending Communities an Analysis of Anti-Gentrification Measures
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DEGREE PROJECT IN ARCHITECTURE, FIRST CYCLE, 15 CREDITS STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN 2019 Defending Communities An Analysis of Anti-Gentrification Measures SVEN LINDEMANN KTH ROYAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE AND THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT1 Defending Communities An Analysis of Anti-Gentrifcation Measures Sven Lindemann KTH Royal Institute of Technology Master of Science Urbanism Studies Abstract Gentrifcation is a controversial phenomenon. Some are in favor of the process as a means of urban revaluation and creator of a social mix while others condemn it as a strategy that only benefts one group: the (upper) middle class. Moreover, gentrifcation’s emergence is a controversial topic. While some researchers describe it as a policy and therefore a political agenda, others claim it is a shift of the market and thus a basic economic happening in the urban environment. However, observers are united by the opinion that gentrifcation needs to be controlled and negative impacts for residents need to be prevented. Two of such anti-gentrifcation measures used in London and Berlin shall be analyzed. Do they feature any potential weaknesses that could diminish their competence? Thus, essential actions against gentrifcations will be summarized, including improvements of the measures, which will be based on policies, activism and concepts of housing. However, it is to be identifed how successfully the anti-gentrifcation measures are applied in these cities? An analysis of the measure’s publicity shall highlight the citizens knowledge about these methods as it is required for a successful application. Acknowledgements First and foremost, I want to thank Dr. Tigran Haas for the supervision of this thesis and his engagement as director of the Urbanism Studies program. Moreover, I would like to thank Dr. Paola Briata from Politecnico di Milano for her extensive supervision of this thesis and her help for determining a topic and framework for this thesis. Last, I want to thank the Axel och Margaret Ax:son Johnsons Foundation for fnancing the extraordinary Urbanism Studies program. Abstract Acknowledgements Table of Contents: 1. Introduction and Research Focus 11 2. Defning Gentrifcation 15 Two Theories of Gentrifcation 17 Culture as Driver of Gentrifcation 21 Pro & Contra of Gentrifcation 23 3. Anti-Gentrifcation Measures 27 Gentrifcation in London 27 Staying Put: by the People for the People 30 Gentrifcation in Berlin 33 Milieschutz: a German Policy 38 4. Improvements to Anti-Gentrifcation Measures 41 London: Change of the Policies 41 Berlin: Extending the Political Goals 46 5. Research on Measure’s Applicability and Publicity 51 Staying Put: the Phantom Measure 53 Headliner Milieuschutz 55 6. Conclusion 64 References 71 1. Introduction and Research Focus It is a global and very current phenomenon: gentrifcation. However, research about it already started in the 1950s in London when the relocation of landed gentry into the British capital’s central working-class neighborhoods was ironically labeled gentrifcation. Nowadays, research on gentrifcation transformed into an intellectual battlefeld. There are several theories on the causes of the process of gentrifcation’s formation within a neighborhood. These theories difer especially regarding the parties taking part in the process. Some researchers interpret the establishment of gentrifcation as a result of an area’s citizens as well as cultural and ethnic prosperity. Another opinion declares that the process is an efect of policy makers’ and real estate developers’ interest to transform a neighborhood in their favor. However, the outcome is well-established and can be very alarming for residents. While in some cases, gentrifcation can stabilize declining areas, other cases see established social structures of neighborhoods being destroyed and tenants displaced from their habitat. Nevertheless, actual solutions against the process have yet to be identifed. In the cities of London and Berlin, particular methods were published to prevent gentrifcation. The success through publicity of these anti- gentrifcation measures is subject of this thesis. Thus, the concepts of these methods are being analyzed. Hence, potential faws that afect the application’s success can be exposed. Moreover, a quantitative online research on the anti-gentrifcation measures’ publicity will be executed in order to further analyze the quality of their implementation. Without a broad publicity in the population, the methods might not be applicable or are at least unable to exploit their full potential. This is resulting from the fact that these anti-gentrifcation measures are especially implemented to defend the tenants and their rights from the consequences of 11 urban regeneration. However, they have to get themselves involved to achieve their goal of defending their right to stay put. Nowadays, gentrifcation is spreading in municipalities around the world – urban and rural. However, this thesis is working on and comparing London and Berlin for certain reasons. First, they share several commonalities. For instance, an intense housing crisis as well as strong and rapidly spreading gentrifcation. Therefore, there has been a lot of research on the process in both cities. Moreover, both metropolises are their countries’ capital cities. However, the cities’ gentrifcation processes are based on a completely diferent context. This is caused by a diferent political baseline and development in recent years. Administrative structures and consequential efects on the housing situation also difer. Especially the latter has a strong infuence on the background of emerging gentrifcation processes. Thus, both capital cities have generated two diferent anti-gentrifcation measures adapted from each process’s drivers and stakeholders. Moreover, Berlin is my feld of expertise while London is my thesis supervisor Paola Briata’s main feld of study. Therefore, a confrontation of the process of gentrifcation as well as its main stakeholders and the applied measures against it in London and Berlin within this thesis appears to be very reasonable. The thesis was guided by several basic research questions. First of all: What is gentrifcation? A formulation of a defnition and framework will help to understand the complex process of gentrifcation. Furthermore, there is obscurity about the causes of gentrifcation. Is it a spontaneous process or rather driven by applied policies? There have been several studies about both theories. Yet neither of them has proved the other one wrong. Thus, potentially both are appropriate regarding diferent cities’ contexts. Moreover, this thesis should clarify: what is the context of both capital cities regarding their infestation of gentrifcation and the drivers behind 12 it? Difering initial situations in London and Berlin are the reason for the diferent type of gentrifcation. Thus, the anti-gentrifcation measures difer in conjunction with the context. Moreover, it shall be analyzed what measures are used by the two cities against gentrifcation and how successfully applicable they are? As they were developed by diferent stakeholders, they do not only difer in reliability but also in adaptability. Thus, possible enhancements of the measures will be exposed. Therefore, the most applicable solutions against gentrifcation shall be summarized. Finally, an analysis of the measures’ online representation will determine the anti-gentrifcation methods’ publicity and will therefore defne their applicability by the citizens. 13 14 2. Defning Gentrifcation Gentrifcation is defned by the Oxford dictionary as the process of renovating and improving a house or district so that it conforms to middle-class taste. It was informed by the researcher Ruth Glass to describe the phenomenon of middle-class people buying houses in London’s working-class neighborhoods for low prices in the 1950s and 1960s (Lees et al., 2014a). According to Lees (2015: 49), gentrifcation can be summarized as the “breakdown of the patriarchal household“. While the number of households with three or more people declines, the number of households of singles, gay couples and childless couples rises within gentrifying areas. While the process can take place everywhere, including peripheral areas, most research concentrates on gentrifcation within central city areas. There, gentrifcation mostly takes place in central low-rent areas as well as former industrial quarters and districts characterized by an extraordinary urban environment like green spaces. The process can include the renovation of the existing housing stock or the construction of new exclusive housing (Briata, 2013). The process of gentrifcation is a phenomenon that can be observed in cities around the world. It “has become a catch-all term used to describe neighborhood change, and is often misunderstood as the only path to neighborhood improvement. In fact, its defning feature is displacement. Typically, people who move into these changing neighborhoods are whiter, wealthier and more educated than residents who are displaced“ (Hamilton, Curran, 2018). But the displacement always has covert costs. The breakup of long- term communities can lead to people feeling alone and isolated. Often, displaced people sufer from a variety of physical and mental health issues which are caused by the stress of leaving their habitat and neighbors (Lees et al., 2014). Therefore, gentrifcation can be 15 characterized as a process of class colonization displacing the urban poor. It is a process of expulsion, exercise