Gentrifiers Evading Stigma: Social Integrationists in the Neighborhood of the Future

Abstract

Abstract How does the moral calculus of gentrification change for self-conscious newcomers in neighborhoods with a reputation deemed unworthy of preserving? In pointing to a set of practices distinct from “pioneering” accounts of gentrification, Brown-Saracino (2007) identified social preservationists as figures who seek to preserve authentic community and the marginalized old-timers who embody it. Using the deviant case of Bridgeport—a historically White neighborhood in Chicago with a deeply historical and persistent reputation for racism —we examine how self-conscious newcomers orient themselves to the gentrification process when the old-timers are not considered a marginalized group worth protecting, but rather a powerful group with problematic racial views. Whereas Brown-Saracino identified the importance of “selecting the old-timer” among a set of potential representatives of a valorized past, we suggest that in this case, newcomers fight to redefine a neighborhood based on a socially desirable future. Drawing on two distinct sets of ethnographic and interview-based data, we outline how this process has unfolded. We conclude that Bridgeport’s story points to the importance of examining how gentrification ideologies emerge from the collision of personal commitments and neighborhood context, as neighborhood newcomers balance their ethics, concerns over personal reputation, and salient aspects of their new homes, including place reputation.