Stage Models of Gentrification

Abstract

Some researchers have contended that stage models are useful to help explain the dynamics of gentrification. Neighborhood change in the Hyde Park section of Tampa, Florida, is analyzed in this article to evaluate empirically the validity of certain components of the stage models and to present some conclusions concerning the general usefulness of the stage models in examining neighborhood change. The models provide a helpful framework within which to examine gentrification, but they must be refined to reflect that gentrification is a more chaotic concept than the models have thus far explicitly acknowledged.