Confronting Gentrification: Can Creative Interventions Help People Keep More than Just Their Homes?

Abstract

Gentrification is changing the landscape of many American cities. As land values rise, people may lose their homes, neighbors, and sites of significance, along with their sense of place, community, and history. There is a critical need to build and preserve affordable housing, yet housing alone will not address the more than material losses. What role can the arts play in sustaining place attachments, restoring relationships, and building place knowledge in gentrifying neighborhoods? This paper explores this question through a systematic review of current research. We identify four prominent alternative interventions in gentrifying neighborhoods—creative placemaking, public pedagogy, community organizing, and public science—and explicate strengths and limitations of each approach. We find the strongest interventions bridge approaches—engaging artists as/and researchers, educators, and community leaders—and mobilize residents as participants in knowledge/cultural production. We note that initiatives that provide short-term benefit may simultaneously make the neighborhood more desirable—and thus more vulnerable to gentrification—in the longer-term. Finally, given the dearth of research in this area, we conclude with recommendations for future research that attends to issues of equity, process as well as outcome, and longitudinal effects of more than material interventions in gentrifying neighborhoods.

“We Roll our Sleeves up and get to Work!”: Portraits of Collective Action and Neighborhood Change in Atlanta's West End

“…Participants were acutely aware of the social, economic, and environmental changes unfolding in the West End and embodied in redevelopment processes more broadly. In the West End and in similar urban neighborhoods, these processes increase the risks of losing neighbors, significant community sites, local history, and threaten resident's attachments to people and places (Thurber and Christiano 2019; Versey et al 2019). Thus, maintaining social connections while embracing change was a primary concern for study participants.…”

Innovating Methodologies for Examining Gentrification-Induced Social and Cultural Displacement: An Illustration of Integrating Photovoice into Story Map

“…Thurber and Christiano (2019) argue that creative placemaking interventions (e.g., photovoice) draw attention to the more than material losses from gentrification. This includes a lost sense of place and history.…”

“…Furthermore, few gentrification methodologies have involved a participatory, action-oriented approach (Council et al 2022; Smith-Cavros and Eisenhauer 2014; Thurber et al 2019). Given the multi-dimensional ways gentrification may impact residents (Alvaré 2017; Chatman 2017; Howell 2018; Hyra 2015; Valli 2015), there is value in moving gentrification research beyond description and theory, to action and practice (Lung-Amam and Dawkins 2020; Thurber et al 2019; Thurber and Christiano 2019). Participatory, action-oriented methods are well suited to disrupt gentrification-induced marginalization among low-income residents of color.…”

Como ensinar Aspectos de IHC de forma desplugada? O uso de um espaço cultural como metáfora de interação

“…Em específico, a arte é um material chave para auxiliar estudantes a aprender sobre desafios existentes na comunidade (García, 2017), criar espaços para interações comunitárias (Furtado & Payne, 2022) e ajudar jovens a se inserir socialmente (Karkou & Glasman, 2004). Arte em espaços públicos conjuram experiências físicas, emocionais e intelectuais que podem transformar como as pessoas se sentem e interagem com suas comunidades (Thurber & Christiano, 2019;Furtado & Payne, 2022).…”