Doctoral Dissertation Research: Community Revitalization and Race Relations in Northwest Detroit

博士论文研究：底特律西北部的社区复兴和种族关系

• 批准号: 1701177
• 负责人: Mitchell Duneier
• 金额: $ 1.07万
• 依托单位: Princeton University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2017-05-01 至 2019-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1701177&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Community; Revitalization

This project will analyze the challenges of inclusive neighborhood revitalization in Northwest, a poor, depopulated, Black Detroit neighborhood. In the last five years Northwest has become a surprising destination for white urban farmers, who have bought cheap homes to fix up, and have converted vacant lots into gardens, parks and farms. Most recent scholars of neighborhood poverty have studied the benefits of moving disadvantaged families out of poor neighborhoods with subsidized housing vouchers - of moving the poor to opportunity. This project, by contrast, will highlight the promises and challenges of moving opportunity to poor residents. It examines whether and how green gentrification in one of the nation's most struggling neighborhoods, combined with federal, city, and philanthropic investments, can help improve neighborhood conditions and the lives of poor residents who remain in place. To answer this question, this dissertation will draw on multiyear ethnographic fieldwork, in-depth interviews with residents, former residents and community leaders, and historical and quantitative data. The researcher will also conduct fieldwork at the Detroit Land Bank, a city institution that owns a quarter of all property in Detroit. Most previous research on gentrification has focused on working class neighborhoods with a high percentage of rental apartments, located near downtown in densely populated cities. Such research has shown that gentrification has a transforming impact on neighborhoods, but has rejected it as a viable mechanism for inclusive neighborhood revitalization. Northwest, by contrast, is a different kind of neighborhood than those in which gentrification has been studied. It is far from downtown, depopulated, and poor, with a high percentage of homeowners. By 2016 half of all properties in the neighborhood were vacant lots, and one third of remaining houses stood abandoned. If gentrification is such a powerful mechanism for neighborhood change, how and to what extent can this potentially be used to turn around disadvantaged, struggling neighborhoods? Dissertation chapters will draw on the ethnographic case study of Northwest to uncover the tensions between racial residential integration and social segregation in public and organizational life in the neighborhood. Chapters will also examine the potential of "greening" to turn around blight, how tax foreclosures shape ongoing displacements of low-income residents, and how the city helps shape the future of land distribution in the neighborhood. In conjunction, these dissertation chapters describe the interactional, organizational and structural challenges to inclusive neighborhood revitalization, as well as the potential that "farming hope" brings to Northwest Detroit. Drawing on this study, the researcher will make policy recommendations on how to move opportunity to depopulated, poor neighborhoods across the country.

该项目将分析西北地区的包容性社区振兴挑战，这是一个贫困，人口衰弱的底特律社区。在过去的五年中，西北已成为白人城市农民的惊人目的地，他们购买了便宜的房屋来修理，并将空置的地段转变为花园，公园和农场。最近的邻里贫困学者研究了将处境不利的家庭带出补贴住房凭证的好处 - 将贫困者带给了机会。相比之下，该项目将强调向贫困居民移动机会的承诺和挑战。它研究了全美最挣扎的社区之一的绿色绅士化以及如何加上联邦，城市和慈善投资，可以帮助改善邻里状况以及贫穷居民的生活。为了回答这个问题，本论文将借鉴多年民族志实地调查，对居民，前居民和社区领袖的深入访谈以及历史和定量数据。研究人员还将在底特律土地银行进行实地考察，该公司拥有底特律所有财产的四分之一的城市机构。先前关于绅士化的大多数研究都集中在工人阶级社区，该社区的租赁公寓比例很高，该公寓位于人口稠密的城市附近。这样的研究表明，绅士化对社区有着转变的影响，但拒绝了它是包容社区振兴的可行机制。相比之下，西北地区与研究高档化的社区不同。它离市区很远，人口衰退和贫穷，房主有很大比例的房主。到2016年，附近的所有物业中有一半是空置的地块，其余房屋中有三分之一被废弃。如果绅士化是邻里变革的强大机制，那么如何以及在多大程度上可以用来扭转处境不利的，苦苦挣扎的社区？论文章节将借鉴西北的人种学案例研究，以揭示公共公共生活与社区生活中的种族居民融合与社会隔离之间的紧张关系。章节还将研究“绿化”扭转疫病的潜力，税收丧失抵押品赎回权如何影响低收入居民的持续流离失所，以及城市如何帮助塑造附近地区土地分布的未来。同时，这些论文章节描述了包容性社区振兴的互动，组织和结构性挑战，以及“耕种希望”带来了西北底特律的潜力。利用这项研究，研究人员将就如何移动机会来减少全国贫困社区的机会做出政策建议。