IIARD International Institute of Academic Research and Development

IIARD INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF GEOGRAPHY AND ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT (IJGEM )

E-ISSN 2504-8821
P-ISSN 2695-1878
VOL. 10 NO. 10 2024
DOI: 10.56201/ijgem.v10.no10.2024.pg145.159

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Gentrification and the Right to The City

Onwukwe, Chukwuemeka S.O., Ogbuokiri, Obinna A.C., Ibemere, Livingstone C., Iweha, Chijioke, MacDonald

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Abstract

This critical commentary investigates the nexus between gentrification and the concept of the "Right to the City”, as postulated by Henri Lefebvre. Gentrification, a procedure concomitant with the deracination of long-standing, lower-income residents in favour of affluent newcomers, leads to social ostracization, housing inequality, spiking housing costs, and the deterioration of cultural character in burghal neighbourhoods. While gentrification is often portrayed as regeneration or urban improvement, its boons are rarely equitably distributed, exacerbating inequalities and disparaging vulnerable populations. The "Right to the City" offers a potent rebuttal-narrative to gentrification by endorsing inclusive, participatory urban development that emphasizes the rights of all residents, particularly marginalized classes. This concept prioritizes the right to access, use, and shape burghal spaces according to the needs of the people who occupy them, rather than the interests of developers and external investors. While approaches such as community land trusts, participatory urban planning, co-design deployments, rent control, and hoi polloi movements were identified as means of safeguarding the urban poor from expulsion and inequitable development, thought-provoking concepts were fronted to stimulate critical reflection, debate, and new perspectives in gentrification. Such provocative concepts are expected to open vistas of bold rethinking of urban policies and a commitment to resisting displacement towards preserving the community and ensuring that urban growth serves the public good, not private profit.

keywords:

Burghal, Class, Gentrification, Hoi Polloi, Neighbourhoods, Inequality

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