Resumen de Commentary: : Variegated gentrification?
As the centre of economic gravity has moved progressively eastwards and with the unprecedented scale and scope of Chinese urbanisation, urban theory has been under increasing challenge. To what extent can the concepts and processes developed in Western settings be applied in the East Asian context? Similar questions have been raised, of course, with regard to other regions, perhaps most notably in relation to Latin America. But these debates about comparison, difference, specificity and challenging Western-centric ideas have taken on greater urgency in recent years with regard to East Asia because of the undeniable global significance of the pace and pattern of urban development in the region. Moreover, the scale of new building has been dramatic with major cities emerging from modest sized towns or even villages in a couple of decades. There has been a fundamental transformation of the lived experiences of the millions of people who have moved from the countryside to the city. In the case of China, the changed relationship between home and work has been both deep and pervasive as the old work unit system has been dismantled. This has changed relations between neighbours, neighbourhoods and has gradually reshaped the entire urban fabric. In such a context, it is no surprise that concepts such as gentrification have come under close scrutiny.
This collection is part of the response to these kinds of concerns. In particular, does the concept of gentrification provide a useful departure point from which to explore the urban process in an East Asian context? In doing so, are we guilty of conceptual stretch, concept dilution or ethnocentrism as has been suggested by various others (see, for example, Butler, 2007; Maloutas, 2011; Zukin, 2010) or does such an engagement offer a productive and constructive exploration of the tension between the specific …
