Newbuild gentrification, tele-urbanization and urban growth: placing the cities of the post-Communist South in the gentrification debate

Abstract

This paper explores new-build developments in Tbilisi, Georgia. Based on interviews with developers and with residents and neighbours of new-build developments, we examine the burgeoning of new-build housing projects in a lower middle income post-Communist country. By doing so, we respond to Lees’ (2012) recent call for the exploration of new horizons in gentrification research, which would allow us to transcend the boundaries established by Global-North theorizations – such as those surrounding “new-build gentrification”. While theoretically tantalizing, interpreting the observed developments through this lens, which a superficial observation of the phenomenon might encourage, is not fruitful. Instead, the case of Tbilisi illustrates the need for an appropriate assessment of context: rather than representing a revanchist return to the city of the middle classes, new-builds in Tbilisi appear, largely, to accommodate demographic growth and “deposited” diaspora capital. This, in turn, leads to intense rates of construction despite high vacancy rates – a process which could be viewed as a form of remote-controlled urban growth, or tele-urbanization.

New-build gentrification in the post-socialist city: Łódź and Leipzig two decades after socialism

“…It also seems that new built, often luxurious, residential and office spaces developed by national and international private investors dominate in the regenerated tracts (Cook 2010;Kovacs, Wiessner, Zischner 2012). Finally, whereas some scholars argue that the process of gentrification in the Central and Eastern Europe city simply reflects the wider global phenomenon (Nagy, Timar 2012), there are critical voices questioning such universalist assumptions (Sýkora 2005, Chelcea 2006, Gentile, Salukvadze, Gogishvili 2015.…”

Gentrifications in the Planetary Elsewhere: tele-urbanization, Schengtrification, colour-splashing, and the mirage of “more-than-adequate” critical theory

“…In other words, this looks like gentrification without gentrifiers: a transformation of the cityscape, and of the real estate market, that may indeed cause (mainly indirect) displacement, but where the most important impact is displacement. Even so, the fieldwork among local residents conducted by this author's team did not reveal much concern about the new developments (Gentile et al 2015). In a society that is accustomed to rapid and unpredictable changes, including occasional wars, flash floods and revolutions, new condos are a less than alarming development.…”

“…Tele-urbanization is a remote-controlled urban transformation process in which diaspora capital occupies a more prominent position at the expense of "global" capital (Gentile et al 2015). The concept puts especial emphasis on urbanization, rather than on the associated (possible) gentrification of the areas touched by it, primarily because it produces urban growth -but not necessarily population growth -rather than re-growth.…”

“…In fact, quite the contrary appears to be the case, as many of the buildings are poorly built with poor materials and obsolete technologies, but they nevertheless do represent a clear improvement in comparison with the standard Soviet-era apartment blocks. As a rule, the newbuilds occupy previously vacant or under-exploited land; in some cases, this has caused semi-coercive displacement, but this is the exception rather than the rule (Gentile et al 2015).…”

Post-Soviet residential neighbourhoods in two second-order Ukrainian cities: Factors and models of spatial transformation

“…E.g. manifestations and peculiarities of gentrification in post-socialist cities were described on the examples of large cities, including capitals, like Prague (Sýkora, 2005), Budapest (Kovács, 1998;Kovács et al, 2012), Moscow (Badyina & Golubchikov, 2005), Warsaw (Węcławowicz, 1998), Poznan (Kotus, 2006), Vilnius (Standl & Krupickaité, 2004), Tallinn (Feldman, 2000), Tbilisi (Gentile et al, 2015). Issues of ethnic and socio-economic spatial segregation are reflected in contributions of Gentile (2003Gentile ( , 2004, Blinnikov et al (2006), Stoyanov and Frantz (2006), Marcińczak et al (2014).…”