| dc.description.abstract | Gentrification as originally coined referred primarily to the renovation and upgrading of old and deteriorated dwellings in the more rundown inner city areas. However, in a world in which cities increasingly have to compete for residents, investment and visitors, governments are looking out for new strategies to attract them. The attraction and retention of middle- and upper-income households through the manipulation of the built environment has become an explicit or implicit urban policy aim for local governments.
The question rises whether these developments can be accounted for as being gentrification? In order to gain new insights on the topic of the new-build gentrifiers, the ‘’Kop van Zuid’’-developments in Rotterdam (the Netherlands) will be used as a case study, since these new-build developments are seen as an example of third wave gentrification. The objective of this thesis is moreover to investigate the characteristics, the motivations (for moving to the ‘‘Kop van Zuid’’) and the housing preferences of the ‘‘Kop van Zuid’’-residents as the so-called ‘new-build’ gentrifiers; and to compare them to the existing literature on the more ‘traditional’ / ‘first and second wave’ gentrification. These insights may lead to a deeper understanding of the concept of new-build gentrification.
Most researchers and scientists have agreed to the fact that the concept of gentrification has been expanded to include amongst others new-build developments (Davidson and Lees, 2010). However, the findings about the demographic and socio-economic characteristics of the ‘‘Kop van Zuid’’-residents, their motives for moving into these new-build neighborhoods, as well as their overall preferences regarding housing, show that there exists a group of new-build gentrifiers that can be distinguished from the more traditional gentrifiers. On the other hand, there are similarities between the two groups of gentrifiers as well, such as their (relatively high) educational level and income category. It is on the basis of these two characteristics that governments are trying to attract the new-build gentrifiers / middle and higher income households to their cities, by manipulating the built environment. | |
