Making Sense of Gentrification: Understanding Black Residents’ Sensemaking Processes Related to Neighborhood Change In Detroit, Michigan

Background and Purpose: Gentrification scholarship has long focused on middle class gentry moving into largely low-income neighborhoods, with enduring debates surrounding its definition, causes, and effects. The last decade demonstrated the physical and cultural displacement experienced by longtime residents of color, within which Black residents’ qualitative experiences are only moderately present. There is room to more squarely situate the qualitative experiences of Black residents within the literature, particularly considering new conceptualizations that focus on how racialized policies, practices, and structures shape the contexts wherein gentrification occurs. This study contributes to this gap in literature by uplifting Black experiences, using a critical theoretical framework throughout the study and importantly to contextualize experiences, and directing action toward local policy solutions and social work practice.

Methods: Sixteen in-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with self-identified Black adult residents who have lived in Detroit for at least 5 years. Interviews ranged from 50 to 90 minutes and occurred both in person (n=3) and via Zoom (n=13). Participants ranged in age from 31 to 70. All participants have lived in Detroit for a minimum of 7 years, with the longest living in the city for 65 years. Participants were recruited using fliers sent via email and email-based newsletters, and in person recruitment. Interviews covered topics including how long participants have lived in their neighborhood, observations of housing, businesses, and built environment elements and changes, and general experiences of neighborhood change. All interviews were transcribed verbatim using Rev.com and uploaded to NVivo’s software. Transcripts were analyzed using Reflexive Thematic Analysis (RTA). Critical frames of Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Sensemaking Theory supported interpretation of findings.

Findings: Analysis reveals the complex relationships Black residents have with their changing neighborhoods, shaped by a combination of factors that include relational ties to people, history, and the built environment, psychological costs of change, and perceptions of the present populations. Participants consistently described change, but inconsistently explicitly tied to these changes to gentrification. Findings highlight the utility of conceiving of gentrification as a relational process, and further, how conceptualizing it as such is critical to understanding the full breadth of the phenomenon as experienced by residents. The use of CRT and Sensemaking Theory provided depth to the analytic process and highlight the importance of recognizing neighborhoods as racialized space, within which the personal experiences and perceptions of Black residents can be more accurately contextualized.

Conclusion and Implications: Implications include integrating resident voice in municipal policymaking and increasing social workers’ engagement with clients’ networks and social ties. Residents described psychological costs related to neighborhood change signals an opportunity for clinical social work practitioners and policy makers to directly engage with the neighborhood processes that contribute to these emotional and psychological impacts. Future studies can more explicitly engage social network analysis to further characterize the nature of consequential relational ties for residents in gentrifying spaces, extend examination on how the racialization of space is consequential for Black and other residents in developing areas, and examine the network structures of Black and longtime residents.