Hybrid gentrification in South Africa

The relationship between urban theory and urban experience has recently come under close scrutiny, with a growing critique of the ways in which Global North urban experiences dominate urban theory. This chapter challenges the northern empirical basis of urban theory by examining two theories that, despite conceptualising very similar processes, are rarely considered analogous and are embedded in divergent theoretical and empirical worlds. The South African case is used to explore the relevance of both gentrification and downward raiding. The chapter commences with a brief overview of gentrification and downward raiding literatures within a comparative urbanism framework. Downward raiding is equally defined by displacement and exclusion.