Philosophy Talks - 05/09/11

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Cities, Gentrification, and Inequality

Frederic Stout, Lecturer in Urban Studies, Stanford University

In the 1960s, as many American cities burst and burned, the upper and middle classes fled to the suburbs, leaving behind a decaying infrastructure and a socially isolated urban underclass.  In more recent times, many urban centers have undergone re-gentrification, and with it the return of the upper classes, safer neighborhoods, and better services.  But gentrification often drives poor and working class people from the very places they had called home.  Is gentrification on balance a morally and socially good thing or bad thing?  Does it serve more to increase inequality or to lessen the isolation of the urban underclass?  John and Ken assess the moral cityscape with Stanford sociologist Frederic Stout, co-editor of The City Reader.