Gentrification in New York, London and Paris: An International Comparison.

Inner city gentrification is widely recognized as an international phenomenon and yet little research has been carried out into its incidence, manifestations and effects at a transnational level. The main objective of the paper is to adopt such an approach comparing the context of gentrification in three of the largest cities that have been affected, New York, London in England and Paris in France. It considers the evolutionary processes of gentrification, the stages through which gentrified neighborhoods in these cities have passed. Taking an international comparative approach, it attempts to establish whether there are certain processes that are prerequisites for the gentrification process, or whether the processes associated with gentrification in the three cities are more locally contextual. The paper aims to contribute to the discourse on gentrification by analyzing the process internationally in more depth than the literature to date, offering a genuinely comparative analysis. In acknowledging contextual differences, one can offer constructive comparative observations of the various stages in the gentrification process which will allow to consider gentrification as an international process.