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Literature Review Note: Literature on youth gentrification was difficult to locate. Below are reviews that provided a basis of our research in order to assist us in our ideas on how youth can be affected. They also have provided supplemental knowledge in order to ask relevant question in our interviews. With the general demand for economic development in many areas of the world, it is hardly surprising that gentrification has become a very significant urban housing issue. In an attempt to go beyond the concept of urban growth, studies have focused on anything from racial impacts, gender studies, and class status to Third World immigration and the demand for certain groups. It seems as though research on children and gentrification have been neglected. While some research only focuses on the economic factors, other work has sought to show how the simple concept of family can be a gentrifying force. Accordingly, Kartsen (2002) suggests that research in a class-specific context, changing gender relations lie at the root of family gentrification, resulting in the construction of new male and female identities. In the preliminary stages of our research we looked at a piece written by Redfern (2002). Redfern asks the question “what makes gentrification ‘gentrification’?” He argues that struggles of identity and status are class-constituted and class-laden. This means that class determines status where gentrifiers benefit more than people that are displaced because of their economic differences. Other studies deal with the concept of family. Karsten (2002) presents a new category of gentrifiers: middle class families with children. She calls these people ‘yupps’, which stands for young urban professional parents. Many of these ‘yupps’ stay in the central part of urban areas. They are able to afford to leave towards a suburban life but choose to stay near the cities, perhaps to remain close to their work in the new segments of the labor market (Karsten 2002). This has become a recent trend of gentrification where new housing developments occupy old industrial areas in order to accommodate these people. Karsten (2002) remains strong on her point and turns the discussion onto a more gender-based study where male head of household become the main source of income and women stay home to take care of children and work fewer hours. In this sense we could see that youth becomes an affect on gentrification. To clarify the reason on why youth has an affect on gentrification is when a parent has children; there is an increased demand for their time. Living close to the city saves time in commuting and available resources for child-care. In this context we can see that the sense of family does indeed create a gentrifying force. |