ABSTRACT
Despite the frequent attention given to gender and gentrification, empirical studies of the relationship remained rare. This chapter fills that gap in the scholarly debates by examining specific gender and class practices in several Edinburgh neighborhoods. The author introduces her study of gentrification in the Scottish capital by noting that her choice of location allows for analysis of the process outside a “world city,” yet within an urban center with a strong information services economy and its prestigious white-collar occupations. The chapter takes up several important issues in the Edinburgh research, including the significance of financially independent middle-class women whose lifestyles and outlooks are similar to professional middle-class men, the role of local contexts in the interpretation of the gentrification process, and the influence of a woman’s life course on residential decision-making. That gentrification has proven to be a resilient term despite its elusive and sometimes contradictory qualities suggests that it remains important to ‘unpack’ its characteristics.
