• Medientyp: E-Artikel
  • Titel: New frontiers of studentification: The commodification of student housing as a driver of urban change
  • Beteiligte: Kinton, Chloe; Smith, Darren P.; Harrison, John; Culora, Andreas
  • Erschienen: Wiley, 2018
  • Erschienen in: The Geographical Journal
  • Sprache: Englisch
  • DOI: 10.1111/geoj.12263
  • ISSN: 0016-7398; 1475-4959
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  • Anmerkungen:
  • Beschreibung: <jats:p>Studentification has permeated policy‐orientated agendas on community cohesion in different national contexts and is of increasing public relevance at a time of changing systems of higher education. To date, studentification has been treated as a process of urban change that leads to the physical downgrading of neighbourhoods and social conflict, tied to concentrations of low‐quality student houses in multiple occupations (<jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">HMO</jats:styled-content>s). Our aim in this paper is to widen conceptual understandings of studentification, drawing upon a novel study of this process in Loughborough, <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">UK</jats:styled-content>. Focusing on the Kingfisher Estate, we provide the first investigation of the formation of a studentified neighbourhood, using data from administrative data sets to track tenurial transformations from owner‐occupation to private rental shared housing. Our analyses are extended from a survey of student preferences for accommodation, and interviews with local community representatives, to reveal a production–consumption interface for high‐quality student housing in Kingfisher. We argue that this is illustrative of a new frontier of studentification, which emphasises the volatility of student housing markets. Crucially, these dynamics are having a significant influence on broader changing urban geographies, such as the de‐studentification of other neighbourhoods, and the overall supply of (affordable) housing. Our paper concludes by arguing for a wider conceptualisation of studentification that does not inherently view the process as a harbinger of downgraded urban environments. From a policy perspective, our research stresses the urgent need for different place‐specific solutions and policy interventions to mitigate the challenges of studentification.</jats:p>