Keeping More Than Our Homes: Responding to the ‘More Than Material' in Gentrifying Neighborhoods

Purpose:  Overwhelmingly, policy makers and community practitioners restrict their analysis of—and interventions in—gentrifying neighborhoods to the material effects, working to reduce physical displacement through building and preserving affordable housing. These efforts to are hard fought, and not won often enough. Yet, even if such interventions are successful, they are not designed to address the ‘more than material’ harms which may be concurrent with or independent from physical displacement, such as cultural and political displacements and fractured social and place relations. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the process and outcomes of the Neighborhood Story Project, an action reserach project conducted in the Spring of 2016 with residents of a rapidly gentrifying neighborhood in Nashville, TN.

Context: To explore the possibilities and limitations of more than material responses to neighborhood change, this case study focusses on the Neighborhood Story Project, a 3-month neighborhood project that engaged 8 residents of the Cleveland Park neighborhood. Through weekly, facilitated session, residents identified a line of inquiry about their neighborhood,  conducted place-based inquiry, and presented their findings dusing a widely-attended,  interactive community exhibition. To understand the possibilities and limitations of the Neighborhood Story Project as an intervention in gentrifying neighborhoods, I ask: What kinds of group processes engage residents in critically reflecting on their neighborhood? How does participation effect residents’ sense of self in relation to their neighbors and neighborhood? How does participation effect social relationships among participants and/or broader feelings of social cohesion within the neighborhood? What is the quality of participants’ collective action? Does participation lead to continued community action, and if so, what does this look like?

Methods: This collaborative, constructivist, qualitative case study (Lincoln & Guba, 1985), draws data from participant observation over the course of the three-month intervention, a participant focus group, and participant interviews 6 months after the conclusion of the intervention.

Results and Implications: Results suggest that the Neighborhood Story Project positely affected social relationships among participants and accelerated the cultivation of social ties within the broader community. Through place-based inquiry, residents deepened their place-knowledge and place-attachments, and increasingly saw them selves as having authority and agency to advocate on behalf of their community. Findings suggest that more than material interventions in gentrifying neighborhoods may positively address the affective and epistimic harms of gentrification, such as lost relationships and devaluing of resident knowledge. Further, affective and epistemic gains may mobilize residents to struggle for material justice. Finally, findings suggest an important role for social work community practitioners to bring group facilitation skills into gentrifying neighborhoods.