Ruth Glass (born Ruth Adele Lazarus, 30 June 1912 – 7 March 1990) was a German-born British sociologist, urban planner and founder (in 1958) of the Centre for Urban Studies at

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

(UCL).

Life

She was born in Berlin on 30 June 1912, the daughter of Eli Lazarus, who was Jewish, and Lilly Leszczynska. She left Germany in 1932, studying at the

London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), established in 1895, is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the University of London. The school specialises in the social sciences. Founded ...

. After spending two years from 1941 at the Bureau of Applied Social Research of

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

, she returned to the United Kingdom in 1943. She concentrated on town planning and social planning.

Work

Glass's work reflected her belief "that the purpose of sociological research was to influence government policy and bring about social change". A lasting legacy is her coining of the term "

gentrification Gentrification is the process whereby the character of a neighborhood changes through the influx of more Wealth, affluent residents (the "gentry") and investment. There is no agreed-upon definition of gentrification. In public discourse, it has ...

", which she created to describe the processes by which the poor were squeezed out of parts of London as upper-class ghettos were created. A key figure in urban sociology, Ruth Glass made a significant contribution to the institutionalisation of British sociology as an academic discipline in the 1950s. Her reputation in this field was established from the late 1930s by studies of housing developments and planning at the Watling Estate in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

and in

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ), colloquially known as Boro, is a port town in the Borough of Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, England. Lying to the south of the River Tees, Middlesbrough forms part of the Teesside Built up area, built-up area and the Tees Va ...

, and later by pioneer work on black immigration. However, as

Eric Hobsbawm Eric John Ernest Hobsbawm (; 9 June 1917 – 1 October 2012) was a British historian of the rise of industrial capitalism, socialism and nationalism. His best-known works include his tetralogy about what he called the "long 19th century" (''Th ...

acknowledged in his obituary of Glass, the text of what would have been her major work, the ''Third London Survey'' (successor to the surveys of Booth and Llewellyn-Smith), was never quite completed.

Family

Between 1935 and 1941 she was married to Henry William Durant, the statistician and pioneer in the field of public opinion polling. She married David Victor Glass, a sociologist and demographer, in 1942.

Selected publications

* *Glass, R. (ed) (1948) The Social Background of a Plan: a Study of Middlesbrough, Preface by Max Lock, London : Routledge & Kegan Paul *Glass, R. (1955) Urban Sociology in Great Britain: a trend report, ''Current Sociology'', IV, 4: 8-35. * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Glass, Ruth 1912 births 1990 deaths British sociologists British women sociologists 20th-century British women scientists Critical theorists Columbia University faculty German emigrants to the United Kingdom