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Gentrification In Global Cities Essay

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Each of the three characteristic contribute to economic growth that subsequently affects social and spatial relationships within global cities. Sassen states that, “Research covering the last two and even three decades shows sharp increases in socioeconomic and spatial inequalities within major cities of the developed world and now increasingly also in cities of the global South” (Sassen, 241). With the rise of global cities and an increase in socioeconomic inequalities comes gentrification. Gentrification changes the market for everyone, as property values go up, people become displaced and homelessness becomes a bigger problem. Gentrification in a global city is the desire for culture, restaurants, museums, bars, day-care, etc. Examples of …show more content…

Since the mid 1970’s there has been economic and social transformation in the economy in terms of specific form of urban labor (Sassen, 246). A key shift is the change in occupational and industrial employment which has also seen a shift in balance. Sassen states that,”Such shifts directly affect the mix of job characteristics, including earnings levels and employment stability, and the types of careers available to local workers” (Sassen , 246). The new type of flexibility leads to an increase in flexible employment and precarious work. This means that there is an increase in part-time jobs that include no regular scheduling, no set hours and can be highly unstable for the employee. With this also comes the rise of jobs paying under the poverty level. This affects different cities because workers under the poverty level can not maintain a middle class level of living, thus shaping the decline of the middle. Instead of having more areas of middle class structure there is an increase in the separation between high and low. An example of this can be seen throughout cities with the decrease in middle retail, which means that there is large separation between the retail to high end and low end, but not much in the middle. Aside from retail, labor markets in cities are also structures around sets of jobs that are very particular (Sassen,

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