Territorial Stigma and Rent Gap Production: The Logics of Gentrification in Gresham and Middlehaven, Middlesbrough

Abstract

Rent gap theory has long been a staple of gentrification studies, and given that gentrification and territorial stigma have been shown to be closely related, the distinct ways in which the rent gap operates in territorially stigmatised spaces demands attention. This paper examines how governance approaches within territorially stigmatised spaces shape the particular ways in which rent gaps are opened. It illustrates how the rent gap theory has operated in practice across two contexts within Middlesbrough, a town in the North East of England. By tracing the governance approaches which shape the form that rent gap production takes across these contexts, this paper provides evidence for how the rent gap theory operates in practice in stigmatised areas, and indicates how the form which the process of rent gap production takes is contingent upon the particular logics of governance operating within a locality at the point of production.