A scoping review of gentrification in the Global South: Fostering Sociological inquiries for a deeper understanding of African contexts

The world has endured an extraordinary pace of urbanization and its concomitant incidents. One of the typical attributes of urban areas is gentrification, a term traditionally representing the upper class's systematic confiscation of key city center spaces driving out the low income urbanites. The definition of gentrification has been evolving for more than half a decade transcending to be on par with all actions of urban revitalization and turning from neighborhood scale inquiry to global debate. For major cities of the global south notably the African continent, urban regeneration activities and the influx of the low income to the outskirts of the city remain a piece of everyday news. However, scientific scrutiny of the process is minimal in the global south and almost absent in most African Cities. The current Scoping review analyzed 24 peer-reviewed articles on gentrification in the global south published between the years 2000-2025. The review narrated the major factors for the lack of a deeper analysis of gentrification in the global south, where it is a matter of state hegemony rather than a market-driven urban phenomenon. Major reasons found included the dominance of North-centeredness, methodological difficulties, and minimal sociological disciplinary engagement. The past scholarly works had a bigger and undeniable role to play in the advancement and growth of gentrification analysis while dominantly considering it as a negative force. However, the authors suggest that gentrification scholarship should try to galvanize methodologies through the use of more participatory and value-free sociological methods to augment efforts yielding a deeper exploration on Africa’s abundant experiences. Key words: - Gentrification, Global South, Africa, Sociology, Urbanization