Youthification: Students, Housing and Urban Change

Recent research confirms ‘studentification,’ or the concentration of students in particular neighbourhoods, as a unique form of urban change, albeit one that overlaps with other processes such as gentrification and raises practical questions about how to accommodate students fairly while minimizing disruptive impacts on other residents. Meanwhile, others have noted that students occupy a unique transitional phase between youth and adulthood, often with distinct experiences of housing. Few have considered the links between these personal life experiences and broader processes of urban change. Furthermore, the recent proliferation of purpose-built student housing in some university cities also raises questions about the role of private capital, universities, and neoliberal urban politics in shaping student geographies. There is also a need to consider how race, gender, sexuality, the internationalization of student populations, and other forms of difference influence these geographies, as well as to expand perspectives beyond the Anglo-American Global North. This session will engage in these issues, across a diverse range of geographical contexts and theoretical perspectives.