I had the privilege to visit the University of Edinburgh for three weeks in October 2024. My stay was hosted by Dr Hamish Kallin, who works as Lecturer in Human Geography at the School of Geosciences. Kallin studies neoliberal urbanism and urban regeneration and has made significant contributions further developing Neil Smith’s classic rent gap theory. In critical urban studies, rent gap theory explains the land value increase caused by urban development. This theory also shows the fundamental economic mechanism behind gentrification. The aim of this research visit was to collaborate to develop a theory on how and where sustainable urban development investments are targeted, resulting in neighbourhood differentiation. We call this the green gap theory.
Recently, I have been developing thinking on how urban sustainability affects residential differentiation. One crucial viewpoint is how mental imageries, such as neighbourhood reputations, direct financial investments. In Tampere, sustainability investments are distributed unevenly, mostly to areas where significant land and real estate value increases are available through urban densification or new land acquisitions.
In Edinburgh, Kallin has conducted important research on neoliberal urbanism and the politics of urban regeneration, showing that territorial stigma can prevent urban developers and private investors from developing areas with bad reputations. He has further developed the rent gap theory by adding the symbolic category of reputational gaps that explains why investors avoid stigmatized areas. Kallin, with Dr Neil Gray, has also explained that state subsidies can affect the distribution balance of urban development investment, naming these as state subsidy gaps. Elsewhere, I have connected similar processes to Finnish sustainable urban development, calling the process of how and where sustainable urban development investments are targeted as the green gap theory.
During my research visit, we started to prepare a comparative research design between Tampere and Edinburgh. We discussed differences between Finnish and Scottish urban development, urbanization processes, the politics of sustainability, and housing policies. I also participated in Kallin’s course on Land, Capital and Power, where he gave lectures on deindustrialization, housing policy and rent gap theory. The in-depth discussions taught me a lot about the differences between the two countries and cities. Both cities are developing similar tram-line systems, regenerating brownfields, and promoting sustainability. However, the different historical developments and political context affect the logic of sustainable urban development.
We started to work on a manuscript on the dynamics of the green gap in the two cities, submitted an abstract to the next European Urban Research Association conference in Bristol, 2025. In addition, we discussed comparative urbanism more broadly, and related to this, considered further collaboration on the politics of sustainable urban development. I will include a work package about sustainable urban development in Edinburgh to my next grant application to the Academy of Finland. During my stay, with the help of Kallin, I started to identify interesting case study neighbourhood for future ethnographic work.
Granton Waterfront is a major brownfield regeneration site right next to one of the most deprived neighbourhoods in Edinburgh. The area is planned to have a new tram connection and elite apartments on the shoreline. However, the planning project proceeds slowly, yet the neighbouring housing estates are already changing. I rented a room from Granton for one week, and explored the area with Kallin and by myself, thinking about conducting a longer fieldwork on the area. This is an interesting case, since it shows the contrast between surplus value created from sustainable urban development, but also the social difficulties of redeveloping historically neglected neighbourhoods.
During my stay, I also gave a talk to about 20 faculty members at the School of Geography and the Lived Environment. I also got the chance to meet other faculty members and Kallin’s PhD students. We hope to further the theoretical thinking on green gap theory and develop a qualitative case study comparison of Edinburgh and Tampere—both cities grappling with gentrification and urban segregation. In conclusion, the research visit was highly productive, and it significantly advanced our collaboration. I hope to have the chance to invite Kallin to Tampere University next time.
Antti Wallin, PhD, works as a university lecturer in social policy and research coordinator of Tampere University’s strategic profiling area on the Sustainable Transformation of Urban Environments. His recent research focuses on the social impacts of sustainable urban development and inclusive models of sustainable urbanism.
