Waiting for War (and other Strategies to Stop Gentrification): The Case of Ras Beirut

Abstract

Analyses of gentrification have found a wide variety of causes and strong evidence that it leads to residential displacement. Insofar then that gentrification can be seen as a problem, there is an alarming need to develop appropriate solutions. Most researchers have only tacitly offered possible strategies for limiting gentrification. Moreover, most of these solutions rely on market-based approaches, which seek to manipulate conditions that appear to cause or limit gentrification, rather than aiming at its foundations. Researchers and policy makers have thus failed to address the root cause of the phenomenon—capitalist urbanization. This paper uses the case of gentrification in Beirut to illustrate the dangers of market-based approaches to studying and confronting gentrification. It concludes that we can stop gentrification by removing housing from the ironclad grip of capitalist commodification and exchange.