The Gentrification-Social Structure Dialectic: A Toronto Case Study zy PIERRE FILION Introduction Scholarly interest in gentrification stems largely from the impact that changes affecting social classes have on the urban scene. Of particular concern is the growth of what has been labelled the ‘new middle class’. This expansion has indeed triggered a reshuffling process within cities which is fuelled by a vigorous striving after urban advantages. The results are gains for gentrifiers and losses for lower income residents. In this respect gentrification is a particularly apt illustration of the links that tie changes within the social structure to the city. The article discusses how changes within the class structure drive gentrification. In this regard, it shares the concerns of most studies addressing gentrification. But its main thrust, which is on gentrification’s impact on the class structure, distinguishes the present article from these studies. More specifically, the article addresses gentrification’s role in consolidating, and even improving, gentrifiers’ class position. It also looks at the deterioration in lower income groups’ living conditions brought about by gentrification. More generally, this study represents an attempt at exploring how the consumption sphere (of which gentrification is one aspect) contributes to class formation. The article begins with a brief review of the literature on gentrification. It then approaches the phenomenon in the light of debates on the respective influence of production and consumption on class formation. The discussion moves to a description of gentrification- related advantages, which rests on a Toronto case study. The article also addresses gentrification’s disadvantages from the lower income households’ point of view. It ends by considering the role of human agency within the consumption sphere and gentrification’s part as a factor of social polarization. Perspectives on gentrification A review of the research on gentrification reveals the passage from a purely descriptive stage to the linking of gentrification to theories of social change (Smith and Williams, 1986: 1 zyxwvuts - 12; Beauregard, 1986). Early works consisted primarily in identifying the phenomenon and measuring its extent (Black, 1975; Lipton, 1977; Long, 1980). In the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s, a string of studies followed which exposed the salient characteristics of gentrification. This is how we learned that gentrification takes root in neighbourhoods that are located close to central business districts (CBDs) (Hamnet and Williams, 1980:472), that are characterized by older, architecturally distinctive housing (Black et al., 1977; Clay, 1979) and that are near physical amenities (White, 1978). Smith