Urban redevelopment for whom? Developing practice-based knowledge for inclusive market redevelopment schemes

This studentship responds to the grand social challenges of poverty, inequalities, and social inclusion . The studentship will directly contribute to advance theoretical and practical knowledge on gentrification; the process whereby low-income citizens are displaced and/or marginalised from their environments to make way for higher income users and residents. In particular, the studentship will focus on the understudied case of traditional retail markets in town and city centres undergoing redevelopment, to analyse how inclusive these processes are and how to mitigate against exclusionary outcomes. Gentrification research has overwhelmingly concentrated on housing, neglecting how retail environments are also transforming with exclusionary trends. Markets are an ideal and original site to generate new knowledge as they are nexus of economic, social, and cultural practices and are also key infrastructures of the city. As society transitions towards more sustainable consumption practices and focus on locally generated economic wealth, markets can become again key community anchors.