Nashville Neighborhoods Project: Manufactured Order and Collective Efficacy in The Gulch

• In Event: 095 - Section on Community and Urban Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 02. Sociability and Collective Efficacy

Abstract

In this paper, we analyze neighborhood order/disorder and collective efficacy in The Gulch, a newly developed urban neighborhood in Nashville, Tennessee. In our mixed-methods study employing ethnography, systematic social observation, semi-structured interviews, and survey interviews, we find that neighborhood order has contributed to a sense of collective efficacy in The Gulch. Adding to Sampson’s (2012) discussion of neighborhood order/disorder and collective efficacy in Chicago, we highlight real estate developers’ dominant role in manufacturing both order and collective efficacy in The Gulch. From hiring a professional cleanup crew and “safety ambassadors” to organizing meetings for local business owners, a developer called Market Street Enterprises strives to generate a sense of order in the substantial proportion of the neighborhood it owns and maintains. This developer influence is reflected in the uneven distribution of indicators of order and disorder across the neighborhood, with signs of order concentrated in the central commercial and residential hub owned by Market Street. As one moves outward to parts of The Gulch that Market Street has not (yet) developed, litter, graffiti, and other indicators of physical disorder become increasingly prevalent. This raises the question: As this developer continues to expand its influence in the neighborhood, will order and collective efficacy follow suit? Would The Gulch have such high levels of order without Market Street’s meticulous cultivation of safety, community, and cleanliness? Perhaps more significantly, is this kind of manufactured order really order in the first place?

*Note: This paper is part of the larger Nashville Neighborhoods Project.

Authors

• Sungeun Bae, Vanderbilt University

• Elizabeth Kathryn Barna, Vanderbilt University

• Thomas Randall Moore, Vanderbilt University

• Christopher Aaron Wold, Vanderbilt University

• Katharine Donato, Vanderbilt University