Gentrification reading list
My first meeting with my supervisor they gave me a pointer on things to read. So I’ve taken that, plus some additions, and come up with this reading list.
This is more for my own use than anyone else. It leans towards my area of focus on rural spaces, and catalogue numbers refer to places in the university library.
Initial list
- The New Middle Class and the Remaking of the Central City. David Ley, 1996. ISBN 0198232926. Shelf ref 305.550971 LEY.
- London Calling: The Middle Classes and the Remaking of Inner London. Tim Butler & Garry Robson, 2003. ISBN 9781859736289. Shelf ref 305.550942 BUT.
- Planetary Gentrification. Loretta Lees, 2016. ISBN 9781509505906. Not in the library, which is weird because Loretta Lees teaches here.
- The New Urban Frontier: Gentrification and the Revanchist City. Neil Smith, 1996. ISBN 041513255X. Shelf ref 307.76 SMI.
- Uneven Development: Nature, Capital, and the Production of Space. Neil Smith, 2010. ISBN 9781844676439. Shelf ref 338.9 SMI. It’s surprisingly easy to read, and the point about production of space is a useful complement to David Harvey’s ideas (Harvey wrote the foreword so there’s a critical dialogue between the two).
- Gentrification and the Enterprise Culture. FML Thompson, 2001. ISBN 0199265607. Shelf ref D42 THO.
- Industry and Empire. Eric Hobsbawm, 1968?. ISBN 1565845617. Shelf ref D42 HOB. It’s near to Thompson’s book on that shelf, the useful chapter is the one on the land and I guess you can read it in conjunction with Thompson.
Additional historical literature
- New Labour’s countryside. Mike Woods, 2008. ISBN 9781861349323. Not in the library, couldn’t find a pdf.
- Agricultural Workers in the Class Structure. Howard Newby, August 1972. Journal article published in the Sociological Review. DOI 10.1111/j.1467-954X.1972.tb00217.x
Classics
- Limits to Capital. David Harvey, 1982. ISBN 0631129685. Shelf ref 335.3 HAR. This is being updated and re-printed in November, I’ve already pre-ordered it. I’ve skimmed through it before, and should probably read it again more carefully. There’s also a pdf on Libcom.
- Accumulation of Capital. Rosa Luxembourg. Shelf ref 335.3 LUX. There’s an online copy at the Marxists Internet Archive.
I’ve set up a Google Scholar alert for ‘rural gentrification’ and a few other authors. My experience of it so far is I get a lot of articles, and only a small number actually seem relevant. Still, it’s worth it for those few good articles which do turn up.
Any tips or suggestions for stuff to read? Send me an email!