Gentrification, Machizukuri and Ontological (In)security: “Bottom Up” Redevelopment and the “Cries” of Residents in Kamagasaki, Osaka

• In Event: 1451 - Community and Urban Sociology Section Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: 6. Insecurities

Abstract

Redevelopment plans and neighborhood change unfolding in Kamagasaki, Osaka's declining day labor ghetto, present one of the starkest examples of gentrification in contemporary urban Japan. Specific decisions about how the neighborhood would change, including the rebuilding and relocation of key institutions, were to be made by the local community through a transparent and inclusive process of community building (machizukuri). Despite these efforts, day laborers, welfare recipients, and people living in shelters and public spaces of Kamagasaki were largely absent from the meetings which were dominated by representatives of neighborhood associations (chōkai), nonprofit organizations, labor unions, governmental bodies, and research experts. I use ethnographic research in Kamagasaki to show that residents held complex views of redevelopment and neighborhood change, and that these views varied according to housing stability. Those in more vulnerable situations, such as living on the streets or in shelters, were more vocal about redevelopment than those on welfare and in supportive housing. Many described redevelopment plans as endangering their ability to remain and survive in the neighborhood. I frame these views of gentrification as reflecting a threat to the ontological security of the most vulnerable residents of Kamagasaki. Those in more stable housing, mostly on welfare and living in doya (single room occupancy hotels), while many still saw redevelopment as a threat, often pointed out aspects that enhance ontological security. This paper makes two broad contributions to the literature on gentrification. First, the machizukuri process implemented in Osaka provides a potentially more inclusive and democratic alternative form of neighborhood change to the developer dominated gentrification model of the United States and many other Western cities. Second, the voices from Kamagasaki residents demonstrate how public and private collaborations to gentrify poor neighborhoods can impact poor residents beyond literal and physical displacement, in this case via threats to ontological security.

Author

• Matthew D. Marr, Florida International University