The Diffusion of Urban Revanchism

Dr Tom Slater

Neil Smith's "revanchist city" thesis has been at the forefront of intense debate in urban geography for over a decade, but with some notable exceptions (from research in Glasgow, Amsterdam, Toronto and Quito), few scholars have conducted sustained inquiry into the diffusion of revanchism away from its birthplace (New York). This project would select one or two cities which show all the symptoms of revanchist urban policy (e.g. zero tolerance policing, intense gentrification, privatised public spaces) and provide some contextual 'thickening' to test some thin speculation that revanchism in its purest form is observable beyond its birthplace.