A Critical Review of School-Gentrification Research Through the Lens of Racial Capitalism

• In Event: (Re)Claiming Cities and Schools: Gentrification, School Closures, and Access to Opportunity

Abstract

Urban gentrification disproportionately negatively affects communities of color (Hwang & Ding, 2020). As such, literature across several disciplines has advanced more race-conscious conceptions of gentrification to better understand the racialized dimensions of urban change (Rucks-Ahidiana, 2021; Quizar, 2019). Despite the increasing significance of gentrification in urban communities of color, however, we know very little about how education research contends with the racialization of urban landscapes and its impact on the educational experiences of Black, Brown, and other students of color racialized as “other.” Therefore, this critical review of literature utilizes Cedric Robinson’s (1983/2000) notion of “racial capitalism” as a lens to contend with the racial dynamics of gentrification and their effect on urban school-communities historically occupied by people of color.

Authors

• Jeremy D. Horne, University of Texas at Austin

• Hailey Karcher, Seattle Public Schools