4 - Gentrification: A New Method to Measure Where the Process Is Occurring by Neighborhood

Summary

Introduction

Gentrification as a concept has not been easy to define. The concept was first introduced by sociologist Ruth Glass in 1964 to describe “working class quarters [that] have been invaded by the middle class” (1964: xvii). Glass first defined gentrification as a process of change in the social structure of deprived working-class neighborhoods due to the moving in of middle-and upperclass citizens, and the subsequent requalification of the housing stock and displacement of incumbent residents. I notice her use of the same words used by E.W. Burgess (1925) to describe movement of the low-income population into middle-class neighborhoods in the City of Chicago. The concept is also difficult in that there has not been agreement among researchers about its causes and consequences (Vigdor et al, 2002; Freeman, 2005; Lees et al, 2010; Brown-Saracino, 2013).

The objectives

This chapter has several objectives. The first is to determine whether gentrification occurred in Detroit as defined by a new method, the Darden-Kamel Composite Socioeconomic Index (CSI). This defines gentrification as a process that results in a change in the entire neighborhood from very low and low socioeconomic characteristics to at least middle, high, or very high socioeconomic characteristics. A second objective is to determine the location of the neighborhoods where gentrification occurred using geographic information system (GIS) techniques to map the location. The final three objectives are connected as follows: to determine whether gentrification resulted in an increase in the white population; to determine whether the white population and the Black population are less residentially segregated in the gentrified census tracts than they were before the tracts became gentrified; and to determine whether the City of Detroit's Private–Public model for economic development leading to gentrification has provided useful assistance to neighborhood residents in their efforts to negotiate with developers in their neighborhoods through the process of “community benefits agreements.”

Past studies of gentrification

Over the years, other researchers have agreed with Glass’ (1964) definition of the process of gentrification. For example, Clark (2005) wrote that gentrification is a process involving a change in the population of land users such that the new users are of a higher socioeconomic status than the previous users, together with an associated change in the built environment through reinvestment in fixed capital.