Post-Fordist Urbanism in France’s Poorest City: Gentrification as Local Capitalist Strategy

Abstract

Gentrification is currently perceived by many critical scholars as a global urban strategy. However, cities differ in their attractiveness for the globalized actors often described as the main force behind this process. The question of the origin of the capital fuelling gentrification in unattractive cities appears therefore crucial. Drawing on the case of Roubaix, an example of the ‘successful’ politics of gentrification in a French ‘repulsive’ city, I will show that it is indeed local capital which starts the process. In this perspective inspired by both the regulation and the Lefebvrian theories of urbanization, the spread of gentrification in declining cities appears less the result of a top-down project driven by the key players of the globalized real estate market, than of a bottom-up project resulting from the needs of local capitalists to find a new way of realizing profits after the collapse of industrial production. In terms of urban politics, the implications are huge.