Reflecting on gentrification; resident experiences with the state-led urban restructuring of a social rented area.

Abstract

This thesis helps to bridge a gap that is still largely existent in modern day literature on gentrification. It focuses on the experiences that residents of social rented dwellings [a group often assumed to be immune for gentrification] have with the effects of the large-scale, state-led urban restructuring project that is currently being executed in their neighbourhood. Based on an analysis of semi-structured qualitative interviews conducted in Utrecht (The Netherlands), this thesis shows that urban restructuring projects can indeed be gentrifying in nature and illustrates the ways in which its effects are experienced by social renters.