Losing One’s Place: Narratives of Neighbourhood Change, Market Injustice and Symbolic Displacement

Abstract

This article examines the narratives offered by those displaced through the gentrification of neighbourhoods in Melbourne and Sydney. Extensive qualitative interview data generated from encounters with self-identified displacees in these cities is used here to examine their responses to changes in and after they moved from their originating neighbourhoods and the impacts these changes had on them. This data reveals that despite displacement commonly being defined in terms of physical movement, in many cases, participants became dislocated and isolated by the physical and social changes that took place while still residing in neighbourhoods as they changed. The article traces these twin modes of displacementboth as a series of impacts generated by direct market dislocation but also as feelings of loss connected with a home that might be imminently lost and the cherished place around it. These narratives reveal how private renters respond to a symbolic violence that they locate in a changing built environment and a shifting social physiognomy that impinges and threatens the viability of their tenure of these places. The article locates these resentments and displacements within a sociopolitical context that celebrates ownership and investment in the very homes and places that are now lost to them.

Making the ‘Invisible’ Visible: Redevelopment‐induced Displacement of Migrants in Shenzhen, China

“…This perception of place is, at its core, the lived experiences of individuals. As also delineated by Atkinson () in the notion of ‘symbolic displacement’, a loss of sense of place represents complex emotions of alienation and estrangement brought about by drastic changes that take place in both the physical and the social fabric of the neighbourhood. This is a gradual but constant process of ‘incumbent unanchoring to dwelling in place’ ( ibid ., p. 377).…”

“…Although this situation was touched upon in Marcuse’s () examination of displacement pressure, it has only recently been more fully conceptualized and discussed in a burgeoning body of literature (see e.g. Davidson, ; Sakizlioğlu, ; Stabrowski, ; Atkinson, ; Shaw and Hagemans, ; Liu et al ., ) that focuses on displacement in situ , namely the displacement of residents who remain in gentrifying neighbourhoods. Here, a seminal work is that by Davidson (), who, basing himself on the philosophical thinking of Lefebvre and Heidegger, approached displacement from a phenomenological perspective and emphasized the social facet of place.…”

“…The village has become less and less liveable because of the rocketing rents, worsening living conditions and reduced access to local resources. Changes in the built environment also contributed to an increasing sense of instability and precariousness, causing ‘symbolic displacement’ as conceptualized by Atkinson ().…”

Making Homes Unhomely: The Politics of Displacement in a Gentrifying Neighborhood in Chicago

“…). Seen through the eyes of residents, we know gentrification is more than the function of rent increase and displacement (Atkinson ; Davidson ; Drew ; Freeman ; Shaw and Hagemans ; Twigge‐Molecey ). Yet, resistance strategies often emerge too late.…”

“…The literature extensively details the lived experiences of those displaced or living in gentrifying neighborhoods (Atkinson 2000;Authier and Lehman-Frisch 2013;Betancur 2011;Bondi 1999;Butler and Lees 2006;Butler and Robson 2001;Cahill 2007;Desmond 2016;Drew 2012;Gotham 2005;Halnon and Cohen 2006;Perez 2002;Zukin et al 2009). Seen through the eyes of residents, we know gentrification is more than the function of rent increase and displacement (Atkinson 2015;Davidson 2009;Drew 2012;Freeman 2011;Shaw and Hagemans 2015;Twigge-Molecey 2014). Yet, resistance strategies often emerge too late.…”