Gentrification in the media: the eviction of critical class perspective

ABSTRACT

In 1980, when the word “gentrification” first appeared in the pages of Canada’s Globe and Mail newspaper, it was defined as the “middle-class reclamation of slums, and the consequent pushing out of the poor.” Since then, the term has appeared in over 800 articles. However, there remains little scholarly work that systematically analyzes the use of this term within the media. This article seeks to redress this gap by examining the changing frequency and use of the term gentrification within media discourses. While early accounts emphasized negative consequences for marginalized communities, over time, these narratives have been replaced by middle-class representations of gentrification which first celebrated and later critiqued it. We demonstrate these continual shifts in media interpretations of gentrification through an analysis of three prominent themes: gentrification as it relates to tourism, gentrification as it relates to consumption, and the ways in which gentrified spaces are consumed.

KEYWORDS:

• Gentrification
• media
• critical perspectives
• displacement
• Globe and Mail

Acknowledgements

An earlier version of this research was presented at the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning Conference in Buffalo in 2018. Comments from this session were helpful moving forward with this article. Giuseppe Tolfo is now based at Urban Strategies in Toronto and wrote this article as part of his MA in planning at the University of Waterloo. We would like to thank Marian Davies for assisting in our newspaper search and the two referees who provided helpful and constructive comments on this article. The usual disclaimers apply.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. The subtitle of this article “The eviction of critical class perspective” is a nod to Tom Slater’s seminal 2006 article “The Eviction of Critical Perspectives from Gentrification Research”.

2. Articles which reference “gentrification” in The Toronto Star, The Toronto Sun, The Vancouver Sun, The Province, the National Post, and The Globe and Mail.

3. Authors’ translation.

4. Between 1980–2017, the total number of articles in The Globe and Mail mentioning each of the following terms was: gentrification: 816; gentrified: 461; gentrifying: 268; gentrify: 59; gentrifier: 5.

5. It should also be noted that since Slater’s article was published, many scholars have taken up his call to focus on working-class critical perspectives, though there remains a large body of literature on the challenges middle-class households face securing or inhabiting gentrified spaces.