Anti-Displacement: The Untapped Potential of University-Community Cooperative Living

• In Event: "It’s a West Philly Thing": Conversations With Intergenerational Community-Driven Civic Action Research Collectives Pursuing Justice

Abstract

The purpose of this Community-led Participatory Action Research (CPAR) study is to explore the landscape of gentrification and displacement and the promise of an innovative and affordable university-community cooperative living options in the West Philadelphia Promise Zone. This project builds community capacity to address the deleterious effects of gentrification on this historically marginalized African American community. In so doing, this project aims to better understand the current status of displacement, affordable housing options, and the promise and limitations of cooperative living at the intersection of the university and the local community.

As defined by Rucks-Ahidiana (2021) gentrification is “a racialized process of class change” (p. 174) and while racial shifts are not inherent, “gentrification always occurs in racialized spaces” (p. 175). Often, gentrification in the U.S. is characterized by Black displacement and white accumulation of valued housing (Freeman & Cai, 2015; Hwang & Ding, 2020; Raymond et al., 2021). Because the process of gentrification is a manifestation of racial capitalism, we adopt a community-driven participatory action research (CPAR) approach to ensure that the research is an accurate reflection of the experiences of the affected population (Kemmis et al., 2013). This multimodal case study investigates the descriptive statistics of the affordable housing landscape paired with the lived experiences of people residing within a rapidly gentrifying urban area.

By embedding Community-driven Participatory Action Research approach, we develop an innovative model for how university-adjacent communities can drive actionable solutions to entrenched social issues with the potential for scalable, sustainable, and transferable impact. This project’s objectives address the questions: How does a community tackle a community-identified issue? Who needs to be involved and how can we build community engagement to address this issue? Furthermore, as we explore the promise and limitations of university-community cooperative living options between university students and existing community residents, we examine if cooperative living is an option that the community is interested in and if so, what would it look like in the built environment and how would it operate both socially and structurally. This objective is in alignment with examining what roles do different community partners, institutions, and networks play in strengthening civic infrastructure, and what combinations of community partners have been most beneficial for increasing civic engagement and tackling community issues.

Over the past five years of working together, our CPAR team has continued to develop and expand to now include fifteen active members. We have trained a diverse, intergenerational team in a wide range of research methods including semi-structured interviews, focus groups, document analysis, and photowalks. Our community researchers have led data analysis, led publications in academic journals, and presented the work at multiple regional and national conferences. As we enter our sixth year of working together and build on our project initiatives, we are being intentional about how we continue to elevate research capacity and to cultivate community among our diverse team. This is a pivotal time to share the lessons we’ve learned as a CPAR team with the education research community.

Author

• Rachel Wenrick, Drexel University