The Marxian and pluralist approaches to the study of inner-city revitalization are described and contrasted. Each approach works from different assumptions about the role of the state, the functions of economic development, and the causes of urban change. However, the approaches agree that there is mutual interdependence among cultural, political, economic, and ecological determinants of gentrification, and this is seen as a basis for a possible synthesis that would enhance the usefulness of future research.
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