Feminist Perspectives on Contemporary Inner City Neighbourhood Change: Gender and Gentrification in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham.

Abstract

Recent feminist critique has highlighted the need for a broader yet more nuanced approach to gentrification which examines gender, like class, within a relational and dynamic conceptual framework. This thesis adopts such a feminist perspective and aims to explore the precise ways in which gender roles and relationships are integral and significant to the cultural processes and practices of gentrification. In accordance with postmodern geographies, the research does not attempt to provide the metanarratives of 'grand theories' but, rather, focuses on interpreting locational and historical specificities in a local case study. Quantitative analyses are used initially to expose the diversity of types of gentrifier and of gentrification and to demonstrate the prominence of women in the process. Qualitative analyses are then employed; firstly, to unpack hegemonic representations of gender in gentrification and, secondly, to explore the meanings and coping strategies inherent in gentrification practices through the local narratives of women gentrifiers living in the study area. The research reveals a complex, multi-dimensional process in which women gentrifiers variously renegotiate a 'place' in the restructuring city by drawing on, reworking and sometimes rejecting dominant cultural constructions of women and the city. This entails an apparent mutual reconfiguration of landscape 'texture' and social 'text' within the changing inner city neighbourhoods of the study area. The research cautions against excessive claims, such as have been made elsewhere, that suggest an associated weakening of patriarchal relations, or which argue for the necessary primacy of class relations over those of gender, or vice versa. The thesis contributes to gentrification research by demonstrating the value of feminist epistemology and by engaging with, rather than ignoring, the complexities of gender in gentrification. Thereby, the research suggests some possibilities for a less 'chaotic conceptualisation’ and a more coherent account of gentrification