Quinton et al.: Green Gentrification

In How Well Do We Know Green Gentrification? A Systematic Review of the Methods, Jessica Quinton, Lorien Nesbitt, and Daniel Sax (all Faculty of the Department of Forest Resources Management, Canada) offer a literature review of current research into “green gentrification.”

Green gentrification, very generally, refers to concerns with “displacement, exclusion, or marginalization of residents” in areas where efforts to development more vegetatively “green” spaces in population centers. The general question is how research is addressing questions of equity and justice in efforts to increase “urban greening”—and, in particular, how investing in sustainable/green urban development projects can attract wealthier incomers at the expense of displacing existing, lower-income residents.

This literature review revealed that existing research tends to focus overwhelmingly on U.S. case studies and that “despite being the main concern of green gentrification, displacement has not been well-documented.” Ultimately, the authors argue this is insufficient to completely grasp the overarching impact of green gentrification.

These projects could have rural consequences, and the authors do call for more integrated analysis of gentrification across theoretical categories, scales, and times. For example, if urban residents are being displaced to the outskirts of the suburbs or metropolitan areas, the ever-expanding urban boundary encroaches primarily on rural areas, leading to further change within these rural communities. While green spaces in urban areas may have benefits for residents in those areas, the rural communities may be the ones that ultimately must shoulder the cost.

The authors give a thorough evaluation of the studies already conducted and suggest a template from which future work can get a fuller picture of green gentrification and its impact on the cities and regions in which it occurs.