How the work has been received — a bibliometric portrait of Non Arkaraprasertkul’s scholarly impact.
At a Glance
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Google Scholar citations | 475 |
| h-index | 12 |
| i10-index | 15 |
| Approximate publications | ~25 |
| Career span | 2007–2025 (~18 years) |
| Citations per paper | ~19.0 |
| Citation velocity (pre-2021) | ~26/year |
| Citation velocity (since 2021) | ~59/year |
Top Five Publications by Citation Count
The five most-cited works account for 274 citations — 57.7% of the total — and span a decade from 2009 to 2019.
| Rank | Title | Venue | Year | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gentrification and Its Contentment | Urban Studies 55(7) | 2018 | 87 |
| 2 | Gentrifying Heritage | Int. J. Heritage Studies 25(9) | 2019 | 68 |
| 3 | Towards Modern Urban Housing | Journal of Urbanism 2(1) | 2009 | 52 |
| 4 | Gentrification from Within | Asian Anthropology 15(1) | 2016 | 36 |
| 5 | Power, Politics, and the Making of Shanghai | J. Planning History 9(4) | 2010 | 31 |
1. “Gentrification and Its Contentment” (2018) — 87 citations
Published in Urban Studies (SJR 1.98, Q1), this is the author’s most-cited work. It emerged from two years of immersive ethnographic fieldwork (2013–2015) in a traditional lilong neighbourhood in central Shanghai. The paper challenges the displacement-centric narrative since Ruth Glass (1964), documenting an alternative process whereby original working-class residents strategically deploy heritage discourse to their advantage — achieving upward mobility without displacement. The concept of “contentment” describes this state where residents experience gentrification as economic opportunity rather than dispossession. Endorsed by Alan Smart (University of Calgary) and Fulong Wu (UCL).
2. “Gentrifying Heritage” (2019) — 68 citations
Published in the International Journal of Heritage Studies (SJR 0.802, Q1), this paper refines the heritage-gentrification relationship by focusing on the “savviness” with which original residents capitalise on heritage as a source of income. The concept of “heritage flexibility” — the malleability of heritage discourse that allows working-class residents to reframe their properties as culturally valuable commodities — represents a distinctive contribution. It has been cited in the Berghahn Books edited volume Heritage, Gentrification and Resistance in the Neoliberal City alongside Neil Smith, David Harvey, Sharon Zukin, and Loïc Wacquant.
3. “Towards Modern Urban Housing” (2009) — 52 citations
Published in the Journal of Urbanism (SJR 0.667, Q1), this paper argues that the lilong should be understood not merely as a physical housing typology but as an “abstract concept” of urban neighbourhood life. This redefinition carries direct design implications: the lilong as a model for low-medium rise-high density (LMRHD) housing. A University of Georgia thesis identified this work as one of only two scholarly proposals for a potential model for a future lilong. Cited in Gregory Bracken’s The Shanghai Lilong (IIAS, 2020) and conservation frameworks at Delft University of Technology.
4. “Gentrification from Within” (2016) — 36 citations
Published in Asian Anthropology (SJR 0.271, Q2), this paper introduces what may be the author’s most significant theoretical contribution: the concept of “gentrification from within.” The concept has been adopted in research contexts spanning at least 12 countries across four continents — including Yogyakarta (Indonesia), London (United Kingdom), Greece, and rural China — and cited in the SAGE Handbook of Cultural Anthropology (2021). This geographic portability signals genuine theoretical innovation.
5. “Power, Politics, and the Making of Shanghai” (2010) — 31 citations
Published in the Journal of Planning History (SJR 0.253, Q3), this paper chronologically traces Shanghai’s formative urban history across three distinct political-economic regimes. It has been cited in the Routledge Handbook of Planning Theory (2017) as an authoritative study of Shanghai planning history — a significant marker of canonical status. The author reports it is “one of the most downloaded papers in the history of the Journal of Planning History.”
Citation Trajectory
49.9% of all lifetime citations (237 of 475) accrued since 2021, indicating accelerating scholarly impact despite a career pivot to policy practice. Citation velocity more than doubled from approximately 26 citations per year pre-2021 to approximately 59 per year since 2021.
The citation trajectory exhibits a two-peaked pattern. The 2020–2021 dip — from 14 citations (2019) to 6 (2020) and 4 (2021) — reflects pandemic-era citation delays. The subsequent 2022 spike of 19 citations, a 375% increase from 2021, represents both a recovery and the maturation of foundational work into its peak citation window. The 2024–2025 recovery trend (11 and 16 citations respectively) suggests newer work on smart cities and digital urbanism is also gaining independent traction.
Journal Portfolio
| Journal | SJR (2024) | Quartile | Year | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Urban Studies | 1.98 | Q1 | 2018 | 87 |
| Int. J. Heritage Studies | 0.802 | Q1 (5 categories) | 2019 | 68 |
| Journal of Urbanism | 0.667 | Q1 | 2009 | 52 |
| Journal of Urban Design | 0.642 | Q1 | 2009 | 18 |
| Asian Anthropology | 0.271 | Q2 | 2016 | 36 |
| J. Planning History | 0.253 | Q3 | 2010 | 31 |
| Footprint | 0.103 | Q4 | 2008 | 18 |
The citation-weighted average SJR is 0.943, placing the portfolio in the upper Q1 range — higher than Journal of Urban Design (0.642) and Journal of Urbanism (0.667), and approaching the threshold of SJR 1.0 that demarcates the strongest Q1 tier.
Four of seven journal articles (57%) appear in Q1 venues. The temporal quality trajectory shows a 116% improvement in average venue SJR from early career (2008–2010) to the established period (2016–2019).
Conceptual Portability: “Gentrification from Within”
The concept of “gentrification from within” has been adopted in research contexts spanning at least 12 countries across four continents:
| Country / Region | Context | Discipline |
|---|---|---|
| Indonesia (Yogyakarta) | Postcolonial heritage district gentrification | Urban studies |
| Indonesia (Jakarta) | Contested urbanisms in Global South cities | Anthropology |
| UK (London) | Warehouse community anti-gentrification | Urban studies |
| Greece | Cultural theory and polysystems | Cultural studies |
| China (Shanghai) | Original formulation | Anthropology |
| South Korea (Seoul) | Endogenous gentrification in East Asia | Geography |
| Continental Europe | Heritage gentrification in comparative perspective | Urban studies |
| Australia | Shanghai gentrification and urban transformation | Heritage studies |
Handbook Canonisation
The work has been included in the Handbook of Gentrification Studies (Edward Elgar, 2018), The Planetary Gentrification Reader (Routledge), the SAGE Handbook of Cultural Anthropology, and the Routledge Handbook of Planning Theory. Inclusion places Arkaraprasertkul alongside Loretta Lees, Tom Slater, Neil Smith, David Harvey, and Sharon Zukin — the foundational figures of gentrification studies.
Practitioner Impact (Outside Citation Metrics)
Since 2021, the author has served as Senior Expert in Smart City Promotion at Thailand’s Digital Economy Promotion Agency (DEPA). In this capacity, over 5,000 officials have been trained, Thailand’s first smart city programme launched, and the national smart city pipeline scaled from 27 to more than 100 cities. The co-creation of the “My City” citizen engagement app in Nakhon Si Thammarat has more than 100,000 subscribers (April 2025; about two-thirds of the roughly 150,000 residents the mayor cites) and 10 million baht (~$275,000 USD) in operational cost savings. These figures represent orders-of-magnitude greater real-world impact than academic publications alone could produce, yet they generate precisely zero Google Scholar citations. Citation metrics capture perhaps 30–40% of total influence.