Commentary: Gentrification, Segregation and the Vocabulary of Affluent Residential Choice

When I began my doctoral work, on gentrification in London, I was fuelled by a desireto measure what was largely an invisiblesocial problem. Household displacement hadbarely been tackled as an issue and, as forpublic policy, the idea had entered neitherthe vocabulary or psychology, except perhapsthrough well-known texts on the impacts ofdislocation through slum clearance, suchas that by Young and Willmott (1964).The almost totalinfluence of gentrification in many centralcityareas suggests that any displacementthat could be achieved has already occurredand that this has already left many boroughsand neighbourhoods as high-income enclaves,often with a remnant scattering ofpublic housing.