Overview

This book uses qualitative data to explore the experiences and ideas of African Americans confronting and constructing gentrification in Washington, D.C. It contextualizes Black Washingtonians’ perspectives on belonging and attachment during a marked period of urban restructuring and demographic change in the Nation’s Capital and sheds light on the process of social hierarchies and standpoints unfolding over time. African Americans and Gentrification in Washington, D.C. emerges as a portrait of a heterogeneous African American population wherein members define their identity and culture as a people informed by the impact of injustice on the urban landscape. It presents oral history and ethnographic data on current and former African American residents of D.C. and combines these findings with analyses from institutional, statistical, and scholarly reports on wealth inequality, shortages in affordable housing, and rates of unemployment. Prince contends that gentrification seizes upon and fosters uneven development, vulnerability and alienation and contributes to classed and racialized tensions in affected communities in a book that will interest social scientists working in the fields of critical urban studies and urban ethnography. African Americans and Gentrification in Washington, D.C. will also invigorate discussions of neoliberalism, critical whiteness studies and race relations in the 21st Century.

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9780815346449

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Reviews

'While Prince's findings are situated in anthropological theory, her work is accessible to a broader audience, and the oral history interviews she utilized provide compelling examples of the impact of gentrification on the lives of longtime African American residents of the city. Of interest to scholars and students of urban studies, urban planning, and African American studies, as well as community members and practitioners involved in gentrification-related issues in cities across the US. ... Highly recommended.' Choice 'An important and much anticipated study that places race at the center of a rigorous and sustained analysis of gentrification. As skillful in exposing the neoliberal policies at the root of gentrification as it is in appreciating the look and feel of gentrification as lived by residents. An eye-opener and must-read work.' Arlene Davila, New York University, USA 'African Americans and Gentrification in Washington, D.C. represents a brand of rigorous and ambitious scholarship on urban culture that should serve as a valuable model for other scholars attempting to work across the boundaries of traditional disciplinary formations. Prince brings a meticulous eye and deft analytical focus to the issue of gentrification in contemporary black America. I can't wait to use this book in class.' John L. Jackson, Jr., University of Pennsylvania, USA 'Using qualitative data, including extensive interview material and ethnographic research, to explore the experiences and ideas of African Americans as they confront and construct gentrification, this book aims to contextualize Black Washingtonians' perspectives on belonging and attachment during a marked period of urban restructuring and demographic change in the US capital. This book is particularly valuable for those studying middle-class urban renaissances in other places and eras ...' LSE Review of Books 'African Americans and Gentrification in Washington DC provides a broad analysis of this com

Author Information

Sabiyha Prince is a cultural anthropologist and independent scholar who resides in the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area.

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