Gentrification Archives - Public Seminar

History

Portsmouth, Displacement, and Belonging in The Tears of Other People

A conversation with author E. M. Ippolito about the settler colonialist roots of modern displacement and urban renewal

February 12, 2026 • by E. M. Ippolito and Eva Szilardi-Tierney

E. M. Ippolito’s relationship to her hometown of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, is a complicated one. While Ippolito’s exploration of Portsmouth’s working-class history began when she was a college student, it was her own displacement from Portsmouth that personalized her research. Learning the story of Portsmouth’s 1960s urban renewal—a federally funded ...

Portsmouth, Displacement, and Belonging in <em>The Tears of Other People</em>

Uncategorized

Behind Milan’s Millennial Renaissance

The hidden costs of becoming an Instagrammable global city

October 27, 2022 • by Giorgio Fontana

I love Milan. I was born in its suburbs and have been living here for fifteen years; it’s still a very special place, a unique city in Italy. But its ruling class (and its residents) must tackle the problem of architectural and social inequality seriously before this place swallows itself....

New York City

Are de Blasio’s Rezonings a Trojan Horse for Gentrification?

Probably Not.

February 22, 2020 • by Alex Schwartz

Mandatory inclusionary zoning applies to neighborhoods that are rezoned for higher densities and also to individual sites granted higher-density zoning variances. It offers developers several options, all of which specify minimum percentages of units that must be provided to households earning various percentages of what is known as “area median ...

Are de Blasio’s Rezonings a Trojan Horse for Gentrification?

Feature

Black Aesthetic/Aesthetic Black

Race, Space, and the Possibilities of Becoming

May 7, 2018 • by Brandi Thompson Summers

How do we recognize blackness? Is it something we feel? According to recent data, medical professionals believe we don’t feel pain at the same intensity as white people, and therefore are administered less pain medication. Is it something we taste? Black culinary traditions are rooted in history and experience, but only a few ...

Feature

Sean Hannity, Gayborhoods, and Running Tutus

Past Present Episode 128

May 2, 2018 • by Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, Nicole Hemmer and Neil J. Young

In this episode, Natalia, Neil, and Niki debate the Sean Hannity phenomenon, battles over the “gayborhood,” and the popularity of running tutus.

...

Sean Hannity, Gayborhoods, and Running Tutus

Uncategorized

The Symbolic Violence of Gentrification, Part IV

Applying Bourdieu’s theory of symbolic power

February 8, 2018 • by Stefano Rumi

Below is part four of an essay in five parts, written by University of Virginia student Stefano Rumi for Isaac Reed's Sociology of Power and Authority course. Previously, Rumi criticized incorporations of Pierre Bourdieu’s habitus in discussing gentrification as less applicable to third-wave gentrification, and excusatory of gentrifiers’ destructive actions in re-appropriating and ...

The Symbolic Violence of Gentrification, Part IV

Uncategorized

The Symbolic Violence of Gentrification, Part III

Understanding and reframing gentrification debates today

February 7, 2018 • by Stefano Rumi

Below is the third segment of an essay in five parts by University of Virginia student Stefano Rumi, written for Sociology of Power and Authority course taught by Isaac Reed. Part two discussed the nature of third-wave gentrification, and why it has evolved from a relatively small, localized phenomenon into ...

Uncategorized

The Symbolic Violence of Gentrification, Part II

Conceptualizing Gentrification Today

February 6, 2018 • by Stefano Rumi

In first segment in this five-part series, Stefano Rumi suggested that gentrification has mutated into a remarkably consistent and replicable phenomenon of urban development in diverse cities across the world. In the second segment, below, Rumi further explores this new form of gentrification, entitled “third-wave gentrification,” and its inequitable effects ...

Uncategorized

The Symbolic Violence of Gentrification, Part I

Re-contextualizing urban renewal

February 5, 2018 • by Stefano Rumi

In an essay published in five parts, Stefano Rumi, a student in Isaac Reed's Sociology of Power course at University of Virginia, will lay out a critique of gentrification, identify its ideological underpinnings, and analyze what it would take to produce an alternative. Below is the introduction. “There is no alternative.” ...

The Symbolic Violence of Gentrification, Part I

Politics

The Futility of Inclusion in the Absence of Access

Who belongs in Provincetown, Massachusetts?

December 5, 2017 • by Mia Cliggott-Perlt

Another, and perhaps more significant, distinguishing feature of Provincetown is its identity as one of the country’s most popular LGBTQA vacation destinations. With the highest rate of same-sex couples in the country, 163 per 1,000 according to the US Census, Provincetown is often referred to as the “gay capital of ...

Race

The Social Condition and the Ghetto

January 6, 2015 • by Zachary Sunderman

Jeffrey Goldfarb and Iddo Tavory (recently joined additionally by Tim Rosenkranz) have been trading pieces in this forum toward sketching the outlines of an existential sociology based on a concept they call "the social condition." The social condition, if I understand them correctly, is the intrinsic potential for ...

Uncategorized

The (Sad) Story of (Banksy’s) Beaver

October 18, 2013 • by Cinzia Arruzza

You may not be aware that the beaver, this unlucky, little, cute rodent, has suffered a long history of oppression and exploitation. On the American continent, the beaver, a traditional source of clothing and food for native people, became soon after the arrival of the European colonizers a main object ...