Smith’s “Toward a Theory of Gentrification” decisively redirects gentrification theory from lifestyle choice to capital circulation. Its iconic idea is announced in the subtitle: gentrification is a back-to-the-city movement by capital, not people. The theoretical contribution is to displace consumer sovereignty explanations with a production-side account grounded in land markets, depreciation, potential ground rent and reinvestment. Methodologically, the article challenges cultural explanations by testing them against economic logic and historical urban redevelopment, arguing that the social profile of incoming residents is an effect rather than the primary cause of neighbourhood transformation. Its conceptual operation is causal reversal: visible consumption is subordinated to hidden capital relations. The bridge to the wider field is foundational for Marxist geography, planning theory, housing studies and gentrification research, because it makes neighbourhood “revival” legible as a restructuring of urban space through the search for profitable ground rent.