"Close and Desirable for Whom?" Parents Transversing Racialized Spaces and Places in Gentrifying U.S. Schools

• In Event: Resisting Policies of Displacement and Dispossession in Educational Spaces

Abstract

Amid gentrification, urban public schools are becoming a key site of conflict over place and space. Drawing on data generated from two qualitative studies on gentrifying schools in Greater Boston and Washington, DC, we investigate how gentrification shapes families’ interactions and experiences in and around schools, and how families negotiate competing claims to space amid neighborhood change. We situate our analysis in critical theories of space and place and find that gentrification strengthens school-neighborhood connections and often excludes families who live outside of the place-based community. School-based parent committees exemplify conflicts over space as neighborhood parents – usually White and affluent parents – assume control. Findings underscore the effects of neighborhood change on within-school dynamics.

Authors

• Jasmine Alvarado, Boston College

• Alisha Butler, Wesleyan University