Bourdieu, rational action and the time‐space strategy of gentrification

This paper proposes gentrification as an example of class habitus adjusting to a new field via a time‐space strategy that involves conscious rational coordination of class agents on a new aesthetic ‘focal point’. This approach suggests: (1) a much greater role for conscious rational processes in both the intentional and intuitive processes of class reproduction; (2) an understanding via gentrification of the symbolic significance of time‐space in class processes; (3) the significance of individual class agents in the process of gentrification; (4) a view of gentrification that gives greater prominence to working‐class taste and habitus.