Doctoral Dissertation Research: Boundaries and Local Resource Access in Gentrifying Neighborhoods.

University Of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison WI

Investigators

Abstract

How do neighborhood residents experience social isolation and socioeconomic diversity in gentrifying neighborhoods? Studies of neighborhoods have historically explored socioeconomic diversity between segregated and homogeneous neighborhoods, finding local context impacts individual outcomes, such as educational attainment. However, gentrifying cities are experiencing an increase in density and population change, such that diversity is increasing within neighborhoods. This dissertation examines how access to and use of local resources changes for residents as population and neighborhood context gentrify. Using place-based interviews paired with geo-spatial data on daily mobility patterns conducted in the gentrifying neighborhood of Crown Heights, Brooklyn I explore how socioeconomic diversity is constructed and experienced by residents, specifically asking: (1) how do residents perceive and negotiate access to and ownership over local resources, such as grocery stores and health services? (2) How do perceptions of access and ownership intersect with tenure, race, class, gender, and age status of residents? and (3) How does this access to local resources impact material inequality and daily travel time? The gentrification of American cities is producing growing socioeconomic diversity in places that have formerly been much more homogeneous, and this project seeks to understand how that diversity is experienced and dealt with at the local level.