Controlling the Urban Fabric: The Complex Game of Distance and Proximity in European Upper‐Middle‐Class Residential Strategies

Abstract

This article presents an open discussion of the processes of urban secession and gentrification in contemporary European cities, arguing that intergroup social dynamics in urban spaces are generally more complex than either extreme mutual avoidance or the colonization of neighbourhoods by the wealthiest groups. We analyse the residential strategies of urban upper-middle class managers in various European metropolitan areas through in-depth semi-structured interviews to argue that these groups develop complex strategies of proximity and distance in relation to other social groups. The development of these 'partial exit' strategies takes place through specific combinations of practices that allow groups to select the dimensions they are willing to share with other social groups, and those in which they prefer a more segregated social environment for themselves and their families. The responses of our interviewees were consistently more nuanced and complex than suggested by a simplistic theory about their drive to withdraw from society, forcing us to develop more sophisticated conceptual frameworks to account for the growing prevalence of multi-layered identities and spheres of reference and solidarity, specific combinations of elective segregation and local involvement, and more active patterns of mobility combined with local embeddedness.

Vertical and Horizontal Segregation: Spatial Class Divisions in Oslo, 1970–2003

“…For instance, Andreotti et al . () suggest that upper‐middle‐class individuals seek to self‐segregate, but when they are forced to live in heterogeneous neighbourhoods, they employ ‘partial exit' strategies. In a similar fashion, Pattaroni et al .…”

Spatial capital and planetary gentrification: residential location, mobility and social inequalities

“…Gentrifiers with a strategic move acquire a specific capital and are able to capture the advantages of both proximity/mooring and mobility (Rérat and Lees 2011). Their mastery of space, and their management of proximity and mobility, represent a complex strategy of participation/integration and disengagement/withdrawal with regard to other social groups (Andreotti, Le Galès, and Javier Moreno Fuentes 2013). However, gentrifiers have become a much more diverse entity and gentrification has taken place in other spatial contexts than the inner cities in the global North (Lees, Shin, and López-Morales 2015).…”

Handbook of Gentrification Studies

“…The mastery of spatial dimensions may imply strategies of selective social inclusion of the upper middle classes in the urban fabric. Andreotti et al (2013) find, for example, that the upper middle classes in Milan, Madrid and Paris anchor themselves in their districts through the use of local infrastructures (leisure, consumption, etc. ), and develop complex strategies of proximity and distancing with regard to other social groups.…”