Middle-class settlement in renovated or redeveloped properties in older, inner-city districts formerly occupied by a lower-income population. The process was first named by Ruth Glass, as she observed the arrival of the ‘gentry’ and the accompanying social transition of several districts in central London in the early 1960s. A decade later, broader recognition of gentrification followed in large cities such as London, San Francisco, New York, Boston, Toronto and Sydney undergoing occupational transition from an industrial to a post-industrial economy. But more recently gentrification has been identified more widely, in smaller urban centres, in Southern and Eastern Europe and also in some major centres in Asia and Latin America (Atkinson and Bridge, 2005). Explanation of gentrification has moved in several directions. One account focused upon housing market dynamics, in particular the power of capital to shape landscape change (Smith, N., 1996b). Another emphasized the rapid growth of…