Beyond gentrification: urban rent and foundational liveability in Southern European intermediate cities

Contemporary urban scholarship frequently interprets transformations of urban space through the category of gentrification. This article argues that, in Southern European non-competitive intermediate cities, urban rent - understood here as encompassing both land and property rent - provides a more effective interpretive lens. Through a comparative analysis of Cagliari, Catania, and Lecce, we show that intense processes of property valorization can unfold even in the absence of significant displacement and social replacement. Drawing on the tradition of Italian critical planning and sociology, we distinguish between marginal land rent - the rent generated by urban expansion through the conversion of agricultural or peri-urban land into developable urban land - and differential rent, associated with the valorization of the existing built environment. The analysis highlights the continuity between these two cycles: peripheral expansion contributed to the depopulation and devaluation of historic centres, creating the conditions for subsequent processes of selective upgrading, functional conversion, and touristification. The findings show that the rent gap tends to close primarily through the replacement of urban uses rather than the replacement of residents. The contemporary valorization of historic centres is in fact based on the progressive erosion of residential functions and their reorientation towards tourist, recreational, and commercial uses. Although these processes do not necessarily take the form of classical gentrification, they have significant effects on the foundational liveability of intermediate cities. The article therefore proposes urban rent, rather than gentrification, as the primary category for interpreting transformations in Euro-Mediterranean intermediate cities. It also shows how these dynamics are supported by a broad social coalition invested in property valorization, corresponding to the real-estate bloc (blocco edilizio) described by the Italian critical tradition.