"We conflate the idea that cities change with the idea that neighborhoods are inevitably taken over by wealthier, whiter residents."
Leslie Kerns
Leslie Kerns is a feminist urban scholar from Toronto, Canada. In her latest book, Gentrification is Inevitable and Other Lies, she pushes back against an assumption that too many of us assume is a given. Anne Helen Petersen says that Kern "argues, with great clarity and precision, not just against gentrification, but against seven over-simplified, often hackneyed ways it’s been understood, normalized, and inevitablized. It turns narratives of gentrification upside down, shakes them, and displays all the presumptions that inform them."
"As a feminist scholar I was always interested in how power works across intersecting systems and identities, but this was the first time I understood that geography was a crucial factor. If you think about ideas like 'a woman’s place,' segregation, apartheid, anti-trans bathroom bills, settler colonialism, space is fundamental. How people are excluded, made vulnerable to violence, Othered, etc. is often accomplished through spatial processes of separation (e.g., 'white vs. colored' bathrooms) and by assuming there are right or normal places for different groups of people to be and not to be."
"...For me, a single dimension anti-gentrification struggle is never going to be enough. If we don’t attend to and make connections among other crises and the violence they create — be it the climate crisis, COVID, policing, borders, reproductive rights, the rise of white supremacy, ongoing settler colonialism —then we’re not going to get very far. I’m aware that in saying that, though, it sounds like I’ve scaled up the problem to a point where people may disengage because they’re overwhelmed and feel powerless. Hence the final section of the book! Initially, I had planned to end the book at the “Gentrification is Inevitable” chapter that includes many examples of resistance to gentrification from various cities. But when I got there, I felt that something was missing. Reading examples was interesting and educational, but not empowering. The book needed to include a call to action and a path to action.
"The last chapter, then, moves beyond a critique of what gentrification scholarship has been missing to lay out affirmative principles for what an intersectional anti-gentrification politics might look like. It also offers a 'baby steps' approach for those who might not have any idea how to get started. So far, people really seem to appreciate this section. They put down a book about a pretty heavy, depressing topic feeling a glimmer of hope and seeing themselves as part of the solution." - Leslie Kerns
Author Interview: Gentrification is Inevitable (and Other Lies)