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Gentrification and Community-led design: Renegotiation and limitation of the rent gap in the UK
(AESOP, 2019) Morton, Tom
Socio-spatial issues are a consequence of underlying social relations - in the case of gentrification delineated by the rent gap theory. Community-led initiatives work to renegotiate and limit the impact of this relation, making understanding the capacity of these initiatives to provide alternative models of development crucial when austerity weakens government’s ability to intervene. This paper offers the Fountainbridge Canalside Initiative (FCI) as an example case, gathering data as an interview with a steering group member and capturing the socio-spatial context, the participant’s theories, and any actions they have taken. FCI attempt to enable their community to tackle gentrification in three senses; through the renegotiation of the socio-spatial relations that facilitate gentrification, through limitation of the socio-spatial issues associated with it, and through symbolic acts of design activism. These findings may demonstrate the generalisable capabilities of community-led practise to tackle problems around land value and cuts to services, potentially informing best practise and approaches to planning, placing an emphasis on not only planning environments but infrastructuring the socio-spatial relationships that produce them.