What is it about?
Urban displacement is a key phenomenon of gentrification. This article explores to what extend there was displacement already in the 19th century. Using the city of Berlin as a case study, the article not only shows that there was displacement but it also suggests why particular social groups moved away from inner-city neighborhoods.
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Why is it important?
Urban sociology has studied extensively gentrification and processes of contemporary displacement but utterly neglected long-term perspectives. Urban history, on the other hand, has focused on segregation while largely disregarding inner-city displacement. Against this backdrop, I suggest that the study of historical displacement can improve our understanding of urban transformation in the past as well as the present.
Perspectives
I enjoyed research for this publication both for conceptual and methodological reasons. Conceptually speaking, I think the paper contributes to a better understanding of what displacement actually means. Methodologically speaking, I hope I was able to show that even a seemingly uninspiring source like the historical address books I used in this study provide crucial insights for socio-historical scholarship.
Philipp Reick
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Gentrification 1.0: Urban transformations in late-19th-century Berlin, Urban Studies, September 2017, SAGE Publications,
DOI: 10.1177/0042098017721628.
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