Exploring the interplay of gentrification and health: Insights from ethnographic approaches

In recent years, the health consequences of gentrification have attracted increasing attention from researchers interested in public health. Empirical research on the topic has mostly relied on quantitative methodologies. However, understanding the many worldwide variants of the process and its effects calls for diversification in order to include more nuanced and context-sensitive methodological approaches. The usefulness of qualitative approaches to the study of the relation between gentrification and health has already been acknowledged, and different kinds of qualitative studies on this topic are appearing more frequently in academic journals. However, ethnographic studies remain scarce. This chapter discusses how ethnography, understood here as a multifaceted but distinct methodological approach, can contribute to our knowledge of the health consequences of gentrification. It briefly advances an understanding of ethnography informed by its history and intellectual foundations, while clarifying some misconceptions about this research tradition. Then, it explores what ethnography may bring to this field of research. It also considers its limitations and discusses the main contemporary challenges that ethnographic research faces, particularly in the field of health research and in studying the relationship between gentrification and health.