Gentrification, Interrupted: Place-Based Identity, Vanishing Landscapes, and the War on Gentrification in Urban America
Restricted (Penn State Only)
Author:
Glass-Heffner, Andrea
Graduate Program:
American Studies
Degree:
Doctor of Philosophy
Document Type:
Dissertation
Date of Defense:
May 17, 2019
Committee Members:
Charles David Kupfer, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor Charles David Kupfer, Committee Chair/Co-Chair John Rogers Haddad, Committee Member Simon J. Bronner, Committee Member Kenneth Brian Cunningham, Outside Member
Keywords:
American Studies Urban Studies Gentrification digital culture gender and sexuality spatial justice memory space and place popular culture visual culture folklore vanishing landscapes
Abstract:
This dissertation is concerned with the people, the methods, and the forms of popular cultural expression that are moving the anti-gentrification conversation beyond academic circles and in to our neighborhoods – into our digital spaces in the twenty-first century. This dissertation argues that the new collective, and emergent, identities that are created at the margins of gentrification, as well as the new tools that are employed to interrupt it, help individuals navigate and respond to the crises and consequences of gentrification. By producing and circulating narratives of loss, those affected by the restructuring of their space, can recreate and map political injustices and reclaim something that might seem uncontrollable at the time. In the twenty-first century city, how these emergent narratives about inequality become politicized and appropriated is at the heart of this interdisciplinary effort. Together, these narratives tell an intersectional story of urban change, social movement, and cultural displacement. Case studies highlight the ways in which vernacular efforts use memory, performance, and practice to challenge neoliberalism. They also demonstrate the ways in which communities employ effective folk responses to displacement and mark vanishing cultures and landscapes with distinct, and in many cases ephemeral, material symbols.
