Interpreting Neighborhood Change
Author: Janet L. Smith
Dissertation School: Cleveland State University
Pages: 220
Publication Date: August 1998
Availability:
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Access Number: 9953
Abstract:
This dissertation examines how neighborhood change discourse was initially shaped by American cultural preferences for social and spatial segregation in the 1920's, and how it continues to function as a tool that utilizes spatial location to establish and reify individual identity. Employing the work of Henri Lefebvre and Ludwig Wittgenstein, the author develops a post-structural spatial framework in which to examine neighborhood change discourse, and use Michel Foucault's genealogical method to interpret the trajectory of ideas that evolve from early writings of human ecologist. The author focuses on the use of race, ethnicity, and class to differentiate neighborhoods and to identify when change has occurred in order to demonstrate how theoretical conceptualizations of neighborhood change privilege particular groups based on culturally preferred constructions of identity in American society. The author concludes with a discussion intended to help make the investigation of urban space, particularly with regard to racial segregation and diversity, more political and reflective in order to allow new interpretations of urban space to be produced.
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