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Urban Frontier describing the racial politics of gentrification
as a mode of capitalist accumulation. Still
COLBY R. KING and SAMANTHA BURT more recent usages may refer to a space
Bridgewater State University, USA inside or on the geographic edge of an estab-
lished, but deindustrialized or disinvested
The urban frontier refers to often unregu- city, including Berlin after the fall of the Wall,
lated spaces in or around a city in which or some contemporary neighborhoods in
(re)settlement, innovation, and new forms of Detroit, or unregulated squatter settlements.
economic development are emerging; it often The urban frontier, then, may refer to a gentri-
describes spaces that are sites of struggle fying neighborhood, such as New York City’s
over political control between long-standing Lower East Side during the late 1980s and
and newly settled residents. The urban fron- early 1990s, and Brixton in London, or hip
tier concept appears as an oxymoron, with temporary developments in disused spaces of
frontier referring to something that is on the Detroit or Berlin, or settlements in the Kibera
edge of a growing or expanding territory, slums in Kenya, or favelas in Brazil.
and urban referring to densely settled places. Turner (1920) described the frontier as
The urban frontier concept embraces both of “the meeting point between savagery and civ-
these connotations, illustrating an often neb- ilization.” He argued that democracy, in fact,
ulously defined space in or on the edge of an emerged from the frontier environment – as
urban area experiencing social, political, and people went farther west they gained more
economic change and a struggle over power freedom from their European roots and were
between groups of residents in that space. The more motivated in supporting a democratic
meaning of the urban frontier, in the context government, as these spaces were not yet
of urban studies, has evolved substantially incorporated into the USA. Turner’s argu-
since the first usage of the phrase, which may ment, though, is a contested one, as many
be found in Frederick Jackson Turner’s (1920) argue that freedom was the basis of US ideals
historical work The Frontier in American His- before the country began expanding further
tory, in which the term was used to refer to city west, or even before it was independent from
spaces on the edge of an expanding country’s England.
territory. The phrase was adapted by Wade Richard C. Wade’s (1959) The Urban Fron-
(1959) in The Urban Frontier: The Rise of tier: The Rise of Western Cities, 1790–1830,
Western Cities, 1790–1830. Cook (1964) used offered a powerful critique of Turner’s per-
it to refer to design possibilities for the future spective. Wade offered a counterpoint in
of cities. Various scholars with a historical what has become a defining study of the
perspective have used the phrase to describe urban frontier, arguing that “the towns were
urban development on the frontier of expand- the spearhead of the frontier,” and that the
ing countries throughout history, often cause of westward expansion was due to
invoking tropes of manifest destiny (Jackson economic development in cities already
1985; Galenson 1991; Frost 1998). In the late thriving in the west (p. 1). Since the land was
twentieth century, Smith (1996; Smith and previously occupied by France, and Native
Williams 1986) adapted the urban frontier, Americans before that, cities like St. Louis

The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Urban and Regional Studies. Edited by Anthony Orum.
© 2019 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Published 2019 by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
DOI: 10.1002/9781118568446.eurs0365
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2 URBA N FRON T I E R

were already well established, so Wade saw often with the current inhabitants being
this expansion as efforts by settlers to acquire marginalized by the would-be settlers of the
cheap land yet live near metropolitan areas so-called frontier space.
that provided work and other resources they In the late twentieth century, Neil Smith
relied on. He wrote, “A city is many things: it noted how allusions to the urban frontier in
is a cultural focus, a social resort, a political describing gentrification patterns in modern
center, but before – although not above all – it city neighborhoods were working “to ratio-
is a place where people earn a living” (1959, nalize and legitimize the process of conquest”
39). Innovation, creativity, and new forms of (Smith 1986, 17). As he explained,
work which support new economic patterns
remain common characteristics of spaces Just as Turner recognized the existence of Native
described as urban frontiers. Importantly, Americans but included them as part of his
he noted that in most cases areas perceived savage wilderness, contemporary urban-frontier
imagery implicitly treats the present inner-city
as “new frontiers” were already claimed by
population as a natural element of their physical
other countries or indigenous people. The surroundings. Thus the term “urban pioneer”
existence of competing claims in an environ- is as arrogant as the original notion of the
ment where incoming settlers are motivated “pioneer” in that it conveys the impression of a
by the opportunity for profit through devel- city that is not yet socially inhabited; like Native
opment and capital accumulation is echoed Americans, the contemporary urban working
throughout usages of the urban frontier. class is seen as less than social, simply a part of
the physical environment. (1986, 16)
The concept of the frontier has been asso-
ciated with the city and urban life throughout In this way, frontier imagery references mani-
the mid- to late twentieth century in other fest destiny and describes middle-class gentri-
related works. In 1969, David Popenoe edited fiers as settlers on the frontier of the inner city.
The Urban-Industrial Frontier: Essays on
The urban frontier, then, refers to neigh-
Social Trends and Institutional Goals in Mod-
borhoods experiencing processes of gentrifi-
ern Communities, which features chapters
cation as they undergo transformations from
from authors who had recently given lectures
decaying to revitalized spaces. These pro-
at Rutgers University Urban Studies Center.
cesses often create contested spaces in which
Abrams (1965) wrote a book critiquing urban
those possessing resources and advancing
renewal projects titled The City Is the Frontier.
revitalization also impose revanchist policies
Then, in 1974, C. W. Griffin referred to cities
as “the last frontier” with his study of what which conspire against the interests of less
he referred to as the “urban crisis.” More well-resourced minority residents. Smith
recently, Jackson (1985) referred to patterns (1996) explains that the invocation of frontier
of suburban settlement in the USA as the imagery is not neutral, but reveals this racial
“crabgrass frontier,” and Garreau (1992) politics of gentrification. He illustrates how
invoked the frontier in describing several of movies like Crocodile Dundee turn life in
what he dubbed “edge cities,” which emerged the city into a cowboy fable, and contends
at the intersection of major highways in that “As with the Old West, the frontier is
formerly rural or residential areas near cities. idyllic yet also dangerous, romantic but also
Each of these reflect the common pattern ruthless” (1996, 13). Boyd (2008) illustrates
of associating the frontier concept with how racial ordering politicizes gentrification
cities and urban settlement when describing and how defensive development which works
patterns of change and social upheaval, to protect the interests of the racial minority
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URBA N FRON T I ER 3

may marginalize the most economically rationalizes the violence of gentrification

vulnerable in a neighborhood. and displacement, the everyday frontier on
Invoking the French word for revenge, which the myth is hung is the stark product
Smith (1996) describes gentrification as of entrepreneurial exploitation.”
a form of revenge in which the predomi- As a result, in all forms of urban frontiers,
nantly white middle class reclaims the city there is often substantial tension between
through conservative policies (such as bans preexisting and incoming residents among
on panhandling) which work to exclude less their visions and plans for urban space.
fortunate residents from public as well as Several other scholars have specifically inves-
private spaces. He depicts a dichotomous tigated revanchism in a variety of other
contest for control over gentrifying spaces in cities. MacLeod (2002) noted elements of
this revanchist city, explaining, revanchism in policies towards Glasgow’s
homeless in the 1990s, and Atkinson (2003)
Insofar as gentrification infects working-class examined a child safety initiative and zero
communities, displaces poor households, and
tolerance crime policies within the UK.
converts whole neighborhoods into bourgeois
enclaves, the frontier ideology rationalizes Atkinson (2003) examines public, rather than
social differentiation and exclusions as natural, residential, spaces in two case studies and
inevitable. The poor and working class are all concludes that the new policies may be inter-
too easily defined as “uncivil,” on the wrong preted as reflecting revanchist themes, noting
side of a heroic dividing line, as savages and that security policies often reflect white,
communists. (1996, 17) middle-class, and suburban values, which
Writing in Smith and Williams (1986), may feel oppressive to some. Uitermark and
Smith also draws on Harvey’s (1978; 1982) Duyvendak (2008) describe another form of
recognition that capital will move from the revanchism in Rotterdam, driven by populist
industrial sphere to the built environment political parties with the support of lower-
of the residential sphere, or second circuit class residents, which primarily targets the
of capital, in search of profits, arguing that city’s Muslim minority. From each of these
these gentrification processes were driven more recent studies focusing on revanchism,
by capital’s desire for profit in an environ- we see a shift in focus toward public spaces,
ment of economic restructuring. This process and revanchist themes through policies
creates a racial politics of gentrification, as which seem to increasingly reflect ethnic, as
capital, primarily controlled by white owners, well as social class, conflicts.
accumulates in minority neighborhoods. As Colomb (2012) invokes the urban fron-
capital invested in real estate accumulates, tier concept in her study of temporary uses
property values increase. As Gotham (2006) of space, such as urban beach bars, which
recognizes, investment in US real estate is came to inhabit disused spaces in Berlin. As
often driven by the globalized flow of cap- Colomb observes, hedonistic techno and club
ital investment, suggesting that the urban culture, as well as gay culture, associated with
frontier represents the edge of an expanding these temporary uses of space were integrated
border of globalization in the second circuit in Berlin’s marketing and tourism promotion
of capital. Smith (1996, 23) recognizes how campaigns. She explains this
impersonal global capital exercises racial pol- has also been accompanied by what I would
itics in particular places, explaining “Whereas call, borrowing Smith’s (1996) terminology, the
the myth of the frontier is an invention that pushing of the visual and discursive “urban
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4 URBA N FRON T I E R

frontier” in the official representations of the and aggravate tensions between longtime
city for marketing and branding purposes, in residents and incoming settlers, with many
order to accrue a distinct “collective symbolic residents disagreeing about the implementa-
capital.” (2012, 143)
tion of particular DIY urbanist installations
More recently, observers have invoked and practices. Garcia and Lydon’s (2015)
urban frontier terminology to describe book, Tactical Urbanism: Short-Term Action
settlement and development patterns in dein- for Long-Term Change, acknowledges that
dustrialized cities, particularly Detroit and this tactic will not solve every problem and
Pittsburgh (Russell 2013; Safransky 2014). that many of these neighborhoods have a
These gentrifying urban frontiers mirror the substantial distance to go before the needs of
urban frontiers on the edge of US territorial all residents are sufficiently incorporated into
the design of these spaces.
expansion from the 1800s, highlighting the
Similar concerns about equitable design
contested claims of rights and control over the
emerge in shadow cities and squatter settle-
space that emerge in urban frontiers. In these
ments, in which 1 billion people currently
spaces, settler-gentrifiers arrive, anticipating
live (Neuwirth 2005). These developments
opportunities of a dynamic urban space
are unregulated, and inhabitants often build
and capital accumulation. The settlement
their own residence from makeshift mate-
narrative works to erase the contributions
rials. Unlike conventional neighborhoods,
of long-standing locals by suggesting that
shanty towns lack any substantial, centralized
the space was unsettled, unclaimed, or unin-
planning, organized investors promoting
habited prior to the settlers’ arrival in the
economic development, or government reg-
“frontier.” Informal or unauthorized inter-
ulation and enforcement of laws and zoning.
ventions which construct or reconstruct Residents may eventually obtain legal recog-
the urban space are a way of life in urban nition for their developments and be incorpo-
frontiers. Observations of such practices rated into the broader government structure
in city spaces of the developed world have (Neuwirth 2005). Although such develop-
generated a term to describe these activities: ments raise concerns among governments
do it yourself (DIY) urbanism. DIY urbanism and other residents, these towns may be
is a practice in which “people make illegal observed as an extreme form of DIY urban-
or unauthorized alterations to urban space” ism existing in (or creating an) urban frontier.
(Douglas 2013, 5). While these practices may The lack of regulation and enforcement of
be illegal or unauthorized, the local residents property rights in shantytowns means that
making these alterations often do so with the residents have a precarious grasp on their
belief that they are rehabilitating or improv- own residences. The lack of political control
ing the urban space, at least for themselves if over DIY urbanism results in confrontations
not for all residents. In Detroit, residents have when some residents disagree with the design
come together through a variety of activities of unauthorized alterations to urban space
to restore and remake their neighborhood by, in which they live or work. Gentrification of
for example, placing new street signs, gardens, older neighborhoods in some city neighbor-
and establishing a neighborhood watch group hoods results in conflict between longtime
(Binelli 2012). By definition, these activities residents and well-resourced incomers.
occur without real political oversight or Urban frontier spaces, then, are tumul-
control. As a result, they can express the pref- tuous locations where social conflict is often
erence of one group of residents over others, heightened by residents’ divergent access
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URBA N FRON T I ER 5

to economic and political resources and US Real Estate Sector.” American Journal of Soci-
residents’ various claims to their own space ology, 112(1): 231–275.
within the city. Griffin, C. W. 1974. Taming the Last Frontier: A Pre-
scription for the Urban Crisis. New York, NY:
SEE ALSO: Do It Yourself Urbanism; Favelas; Pitman.
Favelas/Squatter Settlements; Gentrification Harvey, D. 1978. “The Urban Process under Cap-
italism: A Framework for Analysis.” Interna-
tional Journal of Urban and Regional Research,
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