The making of space and the losing of place : a critical geography of gentrification-by-bulldozer in the north of England.

Much like the economic system that drives and sustains it, gentrification is a dynamic phenomenon that is continuously evolving and diversifying to take advantage of new opportunities. The diversification and proliferation of gentrification takes different forms and envelops a range of geographies, actors and victims. Recently, state-led, 'new build' gentrification has emerged as the latest mutation of gentrification. To date, however, this particular form of gentrification has largely been associated with dis-used 'brownfield' sites, where the absence of a resident population precludes direct displacement. This thesis adds to academic understandings of new build gentrification by extending analysis to urban areas in the north of England, conceptualising Housing Market Renewal and similar programmes as particularly aggressive forms of state-led, new-build gentrification that involve the direct displacement of incumbent residents, demolition of existing housing and the erasure of meaningful places to assemble land for the purpose of redevelopment. Examining the place-meanings of working-class residents living in areas threatened with demolition, the thesis develops a geography of (new-build) gentrification that is focused on matters of home, place and place attachment. Advocating a deeper appreciation of people's prior emplacement, the thesis seeks to re-appraise the meaning and value of places that are too readily dismissed as 'disinvested' or 'decaying' by distanced 'outsiders', including policy-makers, planners and urban scholars. Using data from case studies in the north of England, the thesis further demonstrates how the state dispossesses people of their homes through a combination of discourse, attrition and compulsion. Finding evidence of the damaging impacts of displacement, the thesis concludes by calling for a re- orientation of gentrification research to adopt a more emplaced perspective, thereby strengthening the case for re-conceptualising displacement as a form of social harm.