Contributor(s): Dr Suzanne Hall, Dr Alan Mace, Dr David Madden, Emad Megahed, Dr Patria Roman-Velazquez | Why don't you join us for a live recording of the LSE IQ podcast? Join us on Tuesday 6 November when we’ll be asking, 'Can we afford our consumer society?'. For further information please see: http://bit.ly/lseiqlive. Welcome to LSE IQ, a podcast from the London School of Economics and Political Science, where we ask leading social scientists - and other experts - to answer an intelligent question about economics, politics or society. In 1964 the sociologist Ruth Glass coined the term ‘gentrification’ to describe the process of London’s working class neighbourhoods being taken over by the middle classes. Modest two-up two down terrace houses were bought cheap, done up and made into expensive residences. Once grand Victorian houses that had fallen on hard times and become lodging houses or homes to multiple families, were restored once again and sub-divided into luxury flats. Soon the working class residents had been squeezed out of the neighbourhood and its character changed completely. Fifty years on and this process continues apace in London and many other cities. In this episode of LSE IQ Sue Windebank asks, 'Is the gentrification of our global cities inevitable?' This episode features: Dr Suzanne Hall, Department of Sociology, LSE; Dr Alan Mace, Department of Geography and Environment, LSE; Dr David Madden, Department of Sociology, LSE; Emad Megahed, owner of Tekk Room and Chair of Elephant & Castle Traders Association and; Dr Patria Roman-Velazquez, Chair of Latin Elephant and Senior Lecturer at Loughborough University.