Abstract. In Germany, strategies of “social mixing” aiming at the development of “disadvantaged” neighborhoods have been widely established in urban politics. Such strategies are oriented towards attracting middle class residents and therefore are discussed as drivers of displacement and exclusion of “the disadvantaged”. In our paper, we analyze such urban transformation processes focusing on the productivity of racial classifications. We present results of a research project in which we
examine the appropriation of urban resources (such as housing, neighborhood
infrastructures, and public spaces) by residents in such quarters. Using an
interactivist approach “from below” and qualitative research methods, our
case study on the former “declining”, currently “stagnating” quarter
Essen-Altendorf shows the productivity of racial classifications in the
residents' negotiations on “rules” in the closer neighborhood or on the use of public spaces. Yet, racializing articulations correspond with the
policies of social mixing as well as with the observed selective policing of
a “dangerous quarter”.